0:00:02 > 0:00:03I'm on a wonderful Welsh adventure,
0:00:03 > 0:00:07as I discover more about four outstanding artists
0:00:07 > 0:00:10influenced by this great land.
0:00:10 > 0:00:15During the series, I'll be creating paintings inspired by their work.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18I'm going to have to paint in ways I've never done before.
0:00:18 > 0:00:20And at the end of it,
0:00:20 > 0:00:23I'll probably turn to you and I'll say,
0:00:23 > 0:00:26"Can you tell what it is yet?"
0:00:46 > 0:00:49We're in the South Wales Valleys,
0:00:49 > 0:00:52a landscape once dominated by King Coal.
0:00:52 > 0:00:56But most of the physical evidence of the collieries,
0:00:56 > 0:00:59like the old pitheads, has long gone.
0:01:01 > 0:01:03But for a Polish artist called Josef Herman,
0:01:03 > 0:01:09it was the miners themselves that were the inspiration.
0:01:12 > 0:01:16Josef Herman's paintings of Welsh miners
0:01:16 > 0:01:19have become some of the 20th century's
0:01:19 > 0:01:22most enduring images of working men.
0:01:22 > 0:01:24All his subjects of colliers
0:01:24 > 0:01:26were taken from one former pit town,
0:01:26 > 0:01:31Ystradgynlais in the Swansea Valley.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34Herman was one of the first artists ever
0:01:34 > 0:01:37to put the Welsh working classes on a pedestal
0:01:37 > 0:01:39and I just love these paintings.
0:01:44 > 0:01:49This banner - rough translation, Peace And Strength In Unity -
0:01:49 > 0:01:52is a reminder of the area's mining past.
0:01:52 > 0:01:56Josef Herman's art portrayed the miner as a hero.
0:01:56 > 0:02:02For him, it was all about the strength and the power
0:02:02 > 0:02:04of the working man.
0:02:06 > 0:02:08Josef Herman once said,
0:02:08 > 0:02:13"In labour, my spirit finds itself."
0:02:13 > 0:02:16You can see there was a strong moral core to his art
0:02:16 > 0:02:21and I've got to paint a miner in his style later.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24Sure, I can copy Herman's technique,
0:02:24 > 0:02:27but if I've got any chance of painting in his spirit,
0:02:27 > 0:02:31I've got to truly understand the man.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34I can't pretend to be a political artist - far from it.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37So this is going to be a challenging one.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47Josef Herman and his first wife Catriona
0:02:47 > 0:02:53arrived here in Ystradgynlais in 1944 for a short visit.
0:02:53 > 0:02:55What the Polish immigrant witnessed in this town
0:02:55 > 0:03:00not only changed his art forever, but it changed his life, too.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05He and Catriona briefly stayed with locals
0:03:05 > 0:03:07before moving into the Pen-y-Bont Inn,
0:03:07 > 0:03:09where Josef set up his studio.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12A coal field
0:03:12 > 0:03:15makes an odd landscape.
0:03:15 > 0:03:17And the mining village
0:03:17 > 0:03:23leaves little to the imagination.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27But I found my kind of interest here.
0:03:35 > 0:03:37On the face of it,
0:03:37 > 0:03:39it's hard to explain why a foreign artist
0:03:39 > 0:03:44would settle in such a small industrial town in South Wales.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46But he was a left-wing intellectual
0:03:46 > 0:03:49and this was an era when the working class
0:03:49 > 0:03:52were all concerned about self-betterment
0:03:52 > 0:03:57and politics was discussed on every street corner.
0:03:57 > 0:04:01That area over there was known as Red Square for that very reason.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21Josef decided to commit himself to Ystradgynlais
0:04:21 > 0:04:25when he bought an old soft drink factory
0:04:25 > 0:04:29and had it converted into a house and a studio.
0:04:29 > 0:04:31And I can just picture him getting up,
0:04:31 > 0:04:34as he did every morning at four o'clock,
0:04:34 > 0:04:39to go up there and paint while the miners walked past
0:04:39 > 0:04:42on their way to their job in the pit.
0:04:45 > 0:04:50'I've asked Josef's son David to meet me at his dad's old studio.
0:04:50 > 0:04:53Here we are. The old pop factory.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59'This is actually the first time he's ever been here
0:04:59 > 0:05:02'because David was born after Herman left the Valleys behind.'
0:05:06 > 0:05:08- ROLF LAUGHS - David.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11- How very nice to meet you. - Rolf Harris.
0:05:11 > 0:05:13Sorry you had to come through the rain.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17- It wouldn't be South Wales without it.- Your dad's old studio, this was.
0:05:17 > 0:05:21It is absolutely amazing. My goodness. Just... Yes, amazing.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24What is it like to see your dad's work like this?
0:05:24 > 0:05:26Of course, I grew up surrounded by these.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29You know, these are like old friends, really,
0:05:29 > 0:05:31and you have a very strange relationship
0:05:31 > 0:05:33growing up with pictures, you know.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37What do you know about your father's early life in Warsaw?
0:05:38 > 0:05:42Terrible times. Terrible times. He was born in 1911.
0:05:42 > 0:05:43He grew up in a very poor home,
0:05:43 > 0:05:47his father was an illiterate cobbler,
0:05:47 > 0:05:48and it was a time...
0:05:48 > 0:05:53By the 1930s, anti-Semitism was getting a lot worse in Poland.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56It wasn't just something that started with the Nazis in Germany,
0:05:56 > 0:05:58there was also anti-Semitism in Poland.
0:05:58 > 0:06:02At a certain point in the late '30s, my father felt it was really...
0:06:02 > 0:06:04He was on the left, he was a Socialist,
0:06:04 > 0:06:07and he really thought it was time to get out.
0:06:07 > 0:06:10And he describes the scene
0:06:10 > 0:06:14when he said goodbye to his parents at the railway station,
0:06:14 > 0:06:18and his mother said to him, "Never come back. Never.
0:06:18 > 0:06:21"Never, never."
0:06:21 > 0:06:23And he was then incredibly lucky.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27He went to France - first to Belgium and then to France - to study art,
0:06:27 > 0:06:30and as the Germans invaded Belgium he went to France.
0:06:30 > 0:06:32As the Germans came to France,
0:06:32 > 0:06:36he managed to get a lift from an American woman called June Peaches July,
0:06:36 > 0:06:38who gave him a lift down to Bordeaux
0:06:38 > 0:06:42and he got on one of the last boats coming out of occupied France
0:06:42 > 0:06:45and came to Britain, and he came to Glasgow.
0:06:45 > 0:06:49Then in 1942, he heard from the Red Cross
0:06:49 > 0:06:52that his whole family had been killed by the Nazis,
0:06:52 > 0:06:54all gassed by the Nazis.
0:06:54 > 0:06:56Not just his family,
0:06:56 > 0:07:00but everyone he knew, really, in Warsaw who hadn't already got out.
0:07:00 > 0:07:02I wasn't there.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06Chance, luck. Nothing else.
0:07:06 > 0:07:08The others didn't deserve their death.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12I didn't deserve remaining alive.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15Finish.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18And he came to South Wales,
0:07:18 > 0:07:20not really knowing what he would find at all,
0:07:20 > 0:07:22and he came to this village.
0:07:22 > 0:07:25And then, on this bridge, in this village,
0:07:25 > 0:07:31in sunset with their heads lit like halos -
0:07:31 > 0:07:33"Like the old saints," he said -
0:07:33 > 0:07:36he saw these miners walking across the bridge.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40And something just clicked at that moment,
0:07:40 > 0:07:43and there's something about these sort of monumental shapes,
0:07:43 > 0:07:50these figures, set against sunset, coming back from work.
0:07:50 > 0:07:54It was in South Wales in this small mining village in the 1940s and '50s
0:07:54 > 0:07:56that he found his subject as an artist,
0:07:56 > 0:07:58he found his voice as an artist,
0:07:58 > 0:08:01he found the kinds of colours that mattered to him as an artist.
0:08:01 > 0:08:06So this time here, just mattered to him more than anything else.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09'Meeting Herman's son David'
0:08:09 > 0:08:11will really help me connect with his father,
0:08:11 > 0:08:14as I appreciate his style of painting
0:08:14 > 0:08:18was so affected by his past and by his politics.
0:08:21 > 0:08:22Back in Herman's day,
0:08:22 > 0:08:25there were thousands of coal miners in South Wales.
0:08:25 > 0:08:30But if my painting has any chance of doing him justice,
0:08:30 > 0:08:32I need to find a working collier.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36And that's a pretty formidable task in this day and age.
0:08:43 > 0:08:45# Working in a coal mine
0:08:45 > 0:08:47# Going down, down, down
0:08:47 > 0:08:48# Working in a coal mine
0:08:48 > 0:08:50# Whoop! About to slip down
0:08:50 > 0:08:52# Working in a coal mine
0:08:52 > 0:08:53# Going down, down, down
0:08:53 > 0:08:55# Working in a coal mine
0:08:55 > 0:08:57# Whoop! About to slip down
0:08:57 > 0:08:59# Five o'clock in the morning... #
0:08:59 > 0:09:03The Aberpergwm mine is a working pit just a few miles from Ystradgynlais.
0:09:03 > 0:09:08It was originally closed by the National Coal Board in 1985,
0:09:08 > 0:09:09following the miners' strike.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11'It's now privately owned,
0:09:11 > 0:09:16'and employs over 200 colliers to mine coal to power local industry.'
0:09:18 > 0:09:19Good luck down there, son.
0:09:21 > 0:09:23I don't want any trouble out of you!
0:09:23 > 0:09:25- Rolf, where's the wobble board? - Just there!
0:09:25 > 0:09:27Give us a bit of a...
0:09:27 > 0:09:29MIMICS ROLF'S MOUTH MUSIC
0:09:29 > 0:09:31- HE LAUGHS - What?
0:09:31 > 0:09:33I can't do it! Brilliant.
0:09:33 > 0:09:35It's based on a dog panting.
0:09:35 > 0:09:36HE PANTS
0:09:36 > 0:09:38And then just drop the bass notes in.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41THEY PANT
0:09:41 > 0:09:43THEY LAUGH
0:09:46 > 0:09:48As I meet the boys from the drift mine,
0:09:48 > 0:09:52I suddenly understand why Josef Herman so admired the miner.
0:09:54 > 0:10:00Josef Herman would've loved to have sketched these miners. G'day!
0:10:00 > 0:10:04He would've loved to have seen a pit once again thriving
0:10:04 > 0:10:06in the Welsh Valleys that he loved.
0:10:08 > 0:10:10'I've also spotted my subject,
0:10:10 > 0:10:13'a young apprentice called Carwyn Donovan,
0:10:13 > 0:10:16'who comes from four generations of miners.'
0:10:16 > 0:10:18..Carwyn is mechanical.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21We're doing a drawing of you some time.
0:10:21 > 0:10:22I think so!
0:10:22 > 0:10:25- Are you all right? - I'm good, yeah. Fit and well.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28You'll gave to wash your hands now.
0:10:30 > 0:10:35And today, I'm going to paint Carwyn at the nearby Tower Colliery,
0:10:35 > 0:10:38which finally closed down three years ago.
0:10:41 > 0:10:43- Hey!- How are you today?
0:10:43 > 0:10:44Nice to see you again!
0:10:44 > 0:10:47Even blacker than you were yesterday!
0:10:47 > 0:10:49Very good.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52Although Herman loved sketching,
0:10:52 > 0:10:56his drawings bore little resemblance to his finished paintings.
0:10:56 > 0:10:58This is why I make only notes from nature,
0:10:58 > 0:11:01and draw and paint from memory.
0:11:01 > 0:11:05The subject is then a lost world that I recover.
0:11:05 > 0:11:09But it was in his imagination that they really took form.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12Body shapes and features were exaggerated.
0:11:12 > 0:11:13Building on a rich palette,
0:11:13 > 0:11:16he'd play with light and with perspective.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19Herman used a combination of charcoal, Indian ink,
0:11:19 > 0:11:23watercolours and oils.
0:11:23 > 0:11:25Although Josef produced thousands of drawings,
0:11:25 > 0:11:29he only did a small number of paintings each year.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33It took Herman a good few days to do one painting.
0:11:33 > 0:11:38Producing a painting is a matter of long hours of labouring, labouring, labouring
0:11:38 > 0:11:42until it comes a moment of complete elevation,
0:11:42 > 0:11:46or a revelation even to yourself that you actually did it.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50It is as though you would suddenly be awakened from a pleasant dream.
0:11:51 > 0:11:54'But I want to try and do all this in one sitting.'
0:11:57 > 0:12:01- Are you happy with that position, Carwyn?- Yeah. It's no problem, yeah.
0:12:01 > 0:12:06Cos it gives me a chance to show the body as well as just the face.
0:12:06 > 0:12:10So I've just got to work out what the body's going to look like.
0:12:10 > 0:12:15It's a really strong shape, that, you know...
0:12:15 > 0:12:19It reminds me of Herman's images of the miners -
0:12:19 > 0:12:22the gutsy, strong lines.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25You're actually from Ystradgynlais, are you?
0:12:25 > 0:12:28- That's right, yeah.- Do you know a lot about Josef Herman?
0:12:28 > 0:12:34- Only from what my grandfather used to talk about him.- Yeah?
0:12:34 > 0:12:38He used to mention him, you know.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41It was so unusual to have...
0:12:41 > 0:12:44Here was somebody...
0:12:44 > 0:12:48An outsider, who was from Poland, coming to Ystradgynlais,
0:12:48 > 0:12:53so that made him different from one point of view.
0:12:53 > 0:12:57And then the second part that was unusual
0:12:57 > 0:13:00was that he wanted to paint miners.
0:13:00 > 0:13:02He saw them as heroic figures?
0:13:02 > 0:13:05Well, obviously, you know.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08But as I say, it was just a way of life to us
0:13:08 > 0:13:11and to everyone from Ystradgynlais.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14Perhaps it took an outsider to realise it.
0:13:14 > 0:13:16My grandfather's generation
0:13:16 > 0:13:21would've been used to seeing portraits of the King and the Queen and army generals,
0:13:21 > 0:13:25- none of which meant much to us working class, you know?- Yeah.
0:13:25 > 0:13:31- What do you think of Herman's art? - Fascinating, really.
0:13:31 > 0:13:35As I say, us younger generations
0:13:35 > 0:13:38always look to our fathers and grandfathers
0:13:38 > 0:13:43as the heroes that Herman portrayed them as, you know.
0:13:43 > 0:13:44Yep.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47'We'll get back to the portrait later.
0:13:47 > 0:13:51'Herman often painted men down in the mine.
0:13:51 > 0:13:52'But like me,
0:13:52 > 0:13:56'he also liked to sketch people when they were off-guard, in the street.
0:13:59 > 0:14:02'In Ystradgynlais, he became so well-known
0:14:02 > 0:14:04'that locals nicknamed him Jo Bach,
0:14:04 > 0:14:07'that's Welsh for "Little Jo".
0:14:07 > 0:14:10'I don't know what he would've made of the didgeridoo, though!'
0:14:10 > 0:14:12Very good.
0:14:13 > 0:14:15ROLF PLAYS DIDGERIDOO
0:14:26 > 0:14:29Very spiritual, that is.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32- Yeah.- And again, Rolf. And again!
0:14:32 > 0:14:34- And again?!- Again!
0:14:36 > 0:14:39MOBILE RINGS
0:14:39 > 0:14:41I've been a fan of yours for so long.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44Do you know, you look a lot younger than I thought?
0:14:44 > 0:14:48- IN WELSH ACCENT:- I was only a child then myself, you see?
0:14:48 > 0:14:49- Thank you.- Thank you.
0:14:52 > 0:14:54Enough fun for now.
0:14:54 > 0:14:58I'm off to see those who had a big impact on Herman's life here.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03That'll do it, whoa, stop. Thank you.
0:15:03 > 0:15:10'I'm meeting some of Joe's old pals at one of his favourite haunts, the Miners' Welfare Hall.
0:15:10 > 0:15:12'It's now home to the Josef Herman Foundation.
0:15:12 > 0:15:16'It was built on penny-a-week donations from colliers,
0:15:16 > 0:15:20'and Joe used to hold weekly art classes here.'
0:15:20 > 0:15:21- From Joe Bach.- From Joe Bach.
0:15:24 > 0:15:29'Carole Hopkin and Betty Rae Watkins were two of his closest friends.'
0:15:29 > 0:15:35He wanted to stay in a mining village, so my aunt and uncle,
0:15:35 > 0:15:37Dai and Peggy, invited him to stay
0:15:37 > 0:15:40in Ystradgynlais, in their cottage,
0:15:40 > 0:15:44two up, two down, no bathroom.
0:15:44 > 0:15:49As soon as he arrived in Ystradgynlais, he knew this was the place he wanted to be.
0:15:49 > 0:15:51What was his impact on the village?
0:15:51 > 0:15:54People like Joe don't come around often.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57To me, he was the first man I really fell in love with.
0:15:57 > 0:15:59It's the first time I've admitted this.
0:15:59 > 0:16:07Every Thursday night, in my grandparents' house, the literati of the valley would meet.
0:16:07 > 0:16:09Writers, artists, politicians.
0:16:09 > 0:16:14The voices would rise and we'd listen and we thought,
0:16:14 > 0:16:18"Something important is happening, something very exciting is happening."
0:16:18 > 0:16:23They'd get very volatile, sometimes, because they were all strongly political and socialist people.
0:16:23 > 0:16:25- Left wing?- Very left wing.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28He had this great humanity
0:16:28 > 0:16:29that came out from him.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32He always had time for people.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35He was here for 11 years, but when he left,
0:16:35 > 0:16:38I gather he never forgot this place.
0:16:38 > 0:16:40No, never.
0:16:40 > 0:16:47When he died, his widow, Nini, sent his ashes to be buried, scattered in the studio.
0:16:47 > 0:16:52They were scattered under the fig tree, so that Joe came home.
0:16:52 > 0:16:59In his memorial service, he'd asked that the Welsh national anthem be sung.
0:16:59 > 0:17:05That was very moving, that he'd given instructions to the very end,
0:17:05 > 0:17:08to mention Wales and to honour Wales.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12Joe Herman left Ystradgynlais in 1955,
0:17:12 > 0:17:17because the damp weather was affecting his health.
0:17:17 > 0:17:19But the community was already changing,
0:17:19 > 0:17:25and the pit he'd known so well on the outskirts of town shut down.
0:17:25 > 0:17:29Then, 30 years later, came the miners' strike of the 1980s,
0:17:29 > 0:17:33followed by the closure of pit after pit.
0:17:33 > 0:17:37South Wales' mining communities were devastated.
0:17:37 > 0:17:42Josef Herman didn't die until 2000, so I'm keen to know
0:17:42 > 0:17:47from his son, David, what his father thought about the whole thing.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51What would your dad have thought about the decline of coal mining in Wales?
0:17:51 > 0:17:58He'd have been so sad to have seen what happened,
0:17:58 > 0:18:05both to the miners individually that he knew, to the community, to the whole industry around the country.
0:18:05 > 0:18:13He still lived to see the coal miners strike in the 1980s and that affected him profoundly.
0:18:13 > 0:18:15It was because it was a way of life.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18When I say that there was a tradition which he felt he belonged to,
0:18:18 > 0:18:25what he called his family tree of artists who had also painted workers, that tradition, too,
0:18:25 > 0:18:26was coming to an end.
0:18:26 > 0:18:32I think he had that sense, late in his life, that this really was a moment of change,
0:18:32 > 0:18:36something coming to an end which had mattered a great deal to him.
0:18:36 > 0:18:38By the early 1990s,
0:18:38 > 0:18:46the landscape of the South Wales Valleys had changed dramatically from Herman's day.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49At one time, there were 600 coal mines in Wales.
0:18:49 > 0:18:55Then, in 2008, this mine, Tower Colliery in Hirwaun,
0:18:55 > 0:19:00was the last deep mine in Wales to close.
0:19:00 > 0:19:06It brought to an end over a century of coal-mining history in this part of the world.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09I think it's fitting that I'm painting Carwyn
0:19:09 > 0:19:14at the Tower Colliery, as a tribute to all Welsh miners through history.
0:19:14 > 0:19:20And you know, I believe it's a venue that Herman would have approved of.
0:19:20 > 0:19:26What's the community like now in Ystradgynlais, now that the mine there
0:19:26 > 0:19:28has closed down?
0:19:28 > 0:19:32Well, Ystradgynlais hasn't been as hardly hit
0:19:32 > 0:19:37as other Valleys communities, but it definitely had an effect,
0:19:37 > 0:19:43the pit closure programme decimated most communities.
0:19:43 > 0:19:48There was that old saying, you close a pit, you close a community.
0:19:48 > 0:19:55After British Coal closed most of the collieries in South Wales they came to close this colliery,
0:19:55 > 0:20:00they said the place was geologically unviable.
0:20:00 > 0:20:05The men working here knew that wasn't true, so they got
0:20:05 > 0:20:10all their redundancy money together, pooled it together
0:20:10 > 0:20:16and bought the colliery between themselves. They ran it at a profit for 13 years.
0:20:16 > 0:20:21It closed about two or three years ago, I think it was.
0:20:22 > 0:20:24If they could work this at a profit
0:20:24 > 0:20:27for another 13 years,
0:20:27 > 0:20:33you wonder how many of the other mines that were closed down would still have been able to work.
0:20:33 > 0:20:35That's it, exactly.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38What does it mean to you to be a miner?
0:20:38 > 0:20:42It's definitely more than just a job.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45It's everything.
0:20:45 > 0:20:47I couldn't imagine doing anything else.
0:20:47 > 0:20:49Really?
0:20:49 > 0:20:54That's what I always wanted to do and I'm glad I've had the opportunity to do it.
0:20:54 > 0:20:59I think that's about it. What do you think?
0:20:59 > 0:21:01Well...
0:21:03 > 0:21:05It's amazing. Any chance of getting a print?
0:21:05 > 0:21:11- Of this? No problem, we'll do that straight away.- Thank you very much.
0:21:11 > 0:21:13Excellent, thank you.
0:21:18 > 0:21:23'But I'm wondering whether my painting is all wrong.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26'I'm really worried that it's not Herman-esque enough.
0:21:26 > 0:21:30'I think I need to visit the Glynn Vivian Gallery in Swansea
0:21:30 > 0:21:35'to see Herman's most iconic painting of Welsh miners up close.
0:21:35 > 0:21:40'Hopefully that will tell me whether I've got my painting right, or not.
0:21:43 > 0:21:48'Herman painted this mural for the 1951 Festival of Britain.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51'It shows miners resting after a long shift.'
0:22:01 > 0:22:05Seeing this mural up close,
0:22:05 > 0:22:07I realise that
0:22:07 > 0:22:11my painting of Carwyn is a bit too...
0:22:11 > 0:22:16I can't think of any word to call it other than a bit too pretty-pretty.
0:22:16 > 0:22:20It's a bit too realistic, it's not symbolic enough.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26I think I'd like to try and do something
0:22:26 > 0:22:29like another painting of Carwyn,
0:22:29 > 0:22:32where I try and get that primitive,
0:22:32 > 0:22:35age-old feeling,
0:22:35 > 0:22:41like the Easter Island statues, with him more sort of slab-like,
0:22:41 > 0:22:44and without losing his identity,
0:22:44 > 0:22:50to try and get that feeling of the strength of these massive figures.
0:22:59 > 0:23:03So, I'm going back to the drawing board and I'm starting all over,
0:23:03 > 0:23:07but I don't feel too bad about redoing my painting from scratch.
0:23:07 > 0:23:11Even the great man himself struggled to find perfection.
0:23:11 > 0:23:13Probably, I should say,
0:23:13 > 0:23:17every second picture is destroyed.
0:23:17 > 0:23:20That's to say that the dissatisfaction
0:23:20 > 0:23:22is so great,
0:23:22 > 0:23:24that you just want to...
0:23:24 > 0:23:27This whole image, wipe out from the existence of the world.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31It has never been, and start again.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36Well, I'm back in my own studio now.
0:23:36 > 0:23:43I've got a big blow-up photograph of one of the characters from the Josef Herman mural.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46I've also got...
0:23:46 > 0:23:49the original painting that I did of Carwyn.
0:23:50 > 0:23:56To me, that looks nothing like the heroic statuesque figures that Herman created.
0:23:56 > 0:24:01I've put some background on the canvas and I'm going to get into it and start, see how we go.
0:24:01 > 0:24:05Try and get this pudgy arm going down here.
0:24:07 > 0:24:11Big, sausage-shaped fingers going down there.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14That's already looking more like a Herman, I think.
0:24:14 > 0:24:16Herman chose to
0:24:16 > 0:24:24really forget about their features, not make a big thing of them, because he wanted them to be
0:24:24 > 0:24:31like heroic sculptural shapes, he didn't want to have individual people recognised, I think.
0:24:33 > 0:24:35Yeah, that's good.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38I could do a bit more white on the top of that, I think.
0:24:44 > 0:24:48Yeah, can't find an orange at the moment, so I'll have to make one up.
0:24:50 > 0:24:53And a bit of light coming on that cheek there, like that.
0:24:53 > 0:24:58And sort of a dimmer light coming down there.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01I'm liking this very much.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04Very much enjoying it.
0:25:04 > 0:25:06Just look straight at me for a while. That's good.
0:25:09 > 0:25:13And the light coming on this side of the face...
0:25:13 > 0:25:15You haven't had those teeth whitened, have you?
0:25:19 > 0:25:26Yes, that's good. And a great big boot there, the huge miner's
0:25:26 > 0:25:29reinforced solid boot.
0:25:29 > 0:25:34They've got metal toecaps, so if anything falls on them, it won't destroy their toes and their feet.
0:25:34 > 0:25:38He had a pair of gloves, I seem to remember,
0:25:38 > 0:25:40slung on his belt.
0:25:40 > 0:25:42What I'm going to try to do now
0:25:42 > 0:25:50is try to establish some of these colours, because they had a very bright orange top,
0:25:50 > 0:25:54Carwyn's crew and his team of miners that were working with him.
0:25:54 > 0:25:56That's the way
0:25:56 > 0:26:00Carwyn's helmet looked when I saw him.
0:26:00 > 0:26:05But then I've got to go back to the Josef Herman feel and get
0:26:05 > 0:26:07some lighter colour on here.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10Purple matter,
0:26:10 > 0:26:11and we'll do...
0:26:17 > 0:26:20And those big sausages of fingers.
0:26:25 > 0:26:31Oh, yes. Although it looks nothing like
0:26:31 > 0:26:36Carwyn, it looks as if it's catching the light from something there.
0:26:36 > 0:26:40Those eyes are there in the darkness,
0:26:40 > 0:26:45and I'll imagine all that black coal dust on his face.
0:26:45 > 0:26:53I must say, it really helped me, going to the Glynn Vivian Gallery and seeing that big mural
0:26:53 > 0:26:57of Josef Herman's that he'd done for...
0:26:57 > 0:27:02the 1951 exhibition.
0:27:04 > 0:27:07It was just wonderful, because I'd lost my way, I think,
0:27:07 > 0:27:12trying to recreate a painting in his style.
0:27:12 > 0:27:14I was all over the place.
0:27:14 > 0:27:18If you're painting and it's not working for you...
0:27:18 > 0:27:23Everybody struggles at some time, to get the thing to work the way they want it to.
0:27:25 > 0:27:27I think you've just got to persevere with it.
0:27:27 > 0:27:31Yeah, I want it to stay a bit
0:27:31 > 0:27:33dingy there.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38I'm liking that.
0:27:39 > 0:27:41Yeah, rather like that.
0:27:43 > 0:27:49That should be in shadow from the hand like that, so you get that shadow coming round.
0:27:54 > 0:27:56Yes, yes, yes.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59Josef Herman left the Valleys
0:27:59 > 0:28:03and moved away, but for the rest of his life,
0:28:03 > 0:28:09his heart was still in Wales, and he drew on his memories to paint miners
0:28:09 > 0:28:15and to recreate the mining scene that he'd known so well.
0:28:15 > 0:28:19He thought that miners were real heroes,
0:28:19 > 0:28:23and having met Carwyn and his mates... I couldn't agree with him more.
0:28:25 > 0:28:27We all need heroes in our lives.
0:28:32 > 0:28:34OK, let's sign this.
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