a seer of strange beauties, a museum visit

🖼️ I'm doing Blaugust this year. This is 4/hopefully 31 posts in August, about a visit to an art exhibit I started in June 2026. Back in June I got the train to Cardiff to visit Strange Beauties, an exhibit of the artist Gwen John's work at Cardiff Museum. A view from the upper floor of Cardiff Museum I'm not sure how well know she is outside of Wales - she was a Welsh artist born in 1876, who lived most of her life in France. I visited the Cardiff Museum a lot as child (I have very fond memories of it and it was very nostalgic to be back) and am vaguely familiar with her and her more famous brother, Augustus John. The title of the exhibit comes from a quote from Gwen, where she described herself as a: "seer of strange beauties". The exhibit contains her sketches and some letters and diary entries, really focusing on her process and inner life. She had an interesting personal life (including an affair with the sculptor, Rodin) but this exhibit focused on her artistic process. She did…