After graduating and moving to Blaenau Ffestiniog Claire Langdown would initially use whatever wood she could find for her carving, often panels from old furniture the local antique dealer deemed unsuitable to sell, with the type of wood and it’s form sometimes inspiring the outcome. She created subtle works reacting to everyday life, places and objects -

"My carvings are responses to my life, like poems, which happen when different elements combine, like a curtain blowing out of a window. Themes recur and new ones appear."

Her work quickly gained recognition and she was invited to participate in a group exhibition of north Wales artists at Liverpool Academy Gallery in 1974 followed by a three-person show at Oriel Bangor in 1976. Significant solo exhibitions followed at Bangor, Bath, Brampton in Cumbria, London Riverside and Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and she contributed regularly to group exhibitions throughout the UK including ‘Art And The Sea’, a multi venue exhibition organised in conjunction with the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. Work was bought by the North Wales Arts Association for their Collection and in 1977 she received a prestigious commission from the Welsh Arts Council (now Arts Council of Wales) for a large relief-carved wall panel for the newly opened Maenofferen Primary School in Blaenau Ffestiniog.

By this time Langdown had two sons and her carving bench had moved into the house, making time whenever she could to work at pieces that truly did come from the everyday. Nothing was off-limits for inspiration but it's evident is that she loved to capture a moment or a movement as Lady Patricia Gibberd noted in an introduction to the exhibition at YSP in 1982 -

"The work is witty, joyous, skilful, giving a fresh untainted and quirky view of life…Originality and freshness are scarce talents. Claire has both and much more.”

Work was included in ‘British Relief Woodcarving’, an exhibition of work by eighteen contemporary woodcarvers at the Atkinson Gallery, Southport in 1987 and ‘Narrative Wood Carving’, a Southern Arts Touring exhibition at Winchester Art Gallery in 1994. By this time however Langdown was concentrating on painting and a significant exhibition of new work was held at Ruthin Craft Centre in 1999.  It was fitting therefore, that in 2022 Ruthin Craft Centre would also host ‘Within the Grain – Stories in Wood’ which brought together an exceptional collection of Langdown’s narrative carving work to a new audience so we could, as Philip Hughes, Director at Ruthin noted

“celebrate her eloquent understanding of her chosen material and her clear vision singing out from the wood, sensitive but assured.”

Alongside ‘Within the Grain’ at Ruthin a parallel exhibition, ‘Sleepers and Dreamers’ featured a selection of Langdown’s earlier paintings from the mid 90’s to the recent ‘Goddess’ and ‘Sleeper’ series.

Nia Roberts