Swansea Open 2026

The Swansea Open Art exhibition is on at the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery in Swansea and this year I have one painting included. This is the first year that I only submitted one work. Since I first entered the Swansea Open in 2021 I’ve consistently submitted two works that have been selected.

This year I only had one piece that was ready for exhibition, and it was actually a work that I had initially created for the 2025 exhbition. Last year I got my dates mixed up and so was unable to finish the piece in time. Well, it was finished, but I had to wait for it dry in order to varnish it so a better description would be to say that it wasn’t ready for the exhibition.

This year’s piece is titled “A Souvenir from the Pier”. It features a moonlight Mumbles pier bathed in an eerie green glow as a UFO beams up a number of people from the pier. Behind, the Mumbles lighthouse silently witnesses the event, the lifeboat station dark and quiet.

When I was younger there were always reports of people being “abducted by aliens”, but with the advent of mobile phones and people live streaming everything 24/7 the amount of UFO sightings and abductions has dramatically dropped. Even when the USA government released declassified footage of “UFOs” the world just kind of shrugged their shoulders.

Here’s a couple of images from my sketchbook of the preliminary drawings and composition for the painting.

This one is a little colour study of a potential colour scheme.

And the final piece, oils on canvas:

“A Souvenir from the Pier” is on display at the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Alexandra Road, Swansea, SA1 5DZ until September 20th 2026.

This piece is available to purchase. While it’s on display it can be purchased directly through the Glynn Vivian art gallery. If unsold it at the end of the exhibition it will be available directly from me.