A particularly attractive double-sided oil on board by Keith Gardner RCA, combining a sunlit North Wales landscape with a coastal scene at Trearddur Bay on Anglesey.
The principal face, North Wales Summer Fields, shows open countryside under a broad summer sky, with fields, hedgerows and distant land handled in Gardner's characteristic direct, economical manner. The composition has the freshness of a work painted from observation, with colour and atmosphere taking precedence over tightly finished detail.
The reverse, Low Tide, Trearddur Bay, depicts the Anglesey coast with the tide drawn back, exposing the shoreline and giving the scene a broad, open character. The two sides complement one another particularly well, presenting both the rural and coastal landscapes that formed such an important part of Gardner's work.
Details
Artist: Keith James Gardner RCA (1933-2025)
Title: North Wales Summer Fields / Low Tide, Trearddur Bay
Medium: Oil
Support: Board, painted on both sides
Signature: Unsigned
Artwork size: 29.5 x 37 cm (11.6 x 14.6 in)
Frame size: 35.5 x 43 cm (14.0 x 16.9 in)
Condition: Very good condition
Provenance: The Estate of Keith Gardner
North Wales and Trearddur Bay
North Wales was central to Gardner's practice. The Royal Cambrian Academy recorded him as specialising in small oil panels painted directly on location around North Wales and the Wirral. His subjects regularly included rural landscapes, farms, villages, harbours and coastal scenes.
Trearddur Bay on Anglesey sits naturally within this established body of work. Gardner is well documented painting around the Anglesey coast, where boats, exposed shorelines and changing coastal light provided recurring subjects.
The contrast between the two faces is one of the strengths of the work: one side looks inland across summer fields, while the other turns towards the sea. Neither face is signed, so the work is correctly described as unsigned. Its attribution is supported by its provenance from the Estate of Keith Gardner and by the subject matter, format and handling.
About the Artist
Keith James Gardner RCA (1933-2025) was born in Liverpool and studied at Liverpool Art School and the Laird School of Art in Birkenhead.
He was elected to the Royal Cambrian Academy in 1977 and worked as a full-time painter between 1975 and 1985 before spending thirteen years at the Williamson Art Gallery in Birkenhead.
The Royal Cambrian Academy described Gardner as specialising in small "on the spot" oil panels painted around North Wales and the Wirral. His work repeatedly returned to boats, beaches, fields, villages and changing weather, usually handled with concise brushwork and a strong sense of immediate observation.
