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Top international artist brings solo exhibition to North Pembrokeshire gallery
Ever since she was a child, Carole Hodgson has drawn from the landscape a quality and a strength that have earned her the reputation as one of Britain’s most eminent female sculptors.
After studying at the Slade School of Fine Art (1962 to 1964), she continued to express – with an astounding precision and an unblinkered clarity – a range of subjects that resulted in major solo shows in some of the world’s leading galleries and museums. Her work has gained recognition from leading critics and broadcasters, including Joan Bakewell, who wrote of her in 2015: “We seek the stillness of remote places to soothe our panic at global combustion. We find in the deep reaches of rock and ravine, a balm to modern anxieties. Hodgson’s work both derives from, and pays regard to, these present sensibilities.”
This month local art lovers are being given the chance to view Hodgson’s work at close range when she exhibits her latest selection of predominantly north Pembrokeshire landscapes at The Coach House Visitor Centre, St Dogmaels.
“For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to create art in its many varied shapes and forms,” Carole Hodgson told The Herald.
“I attended my first art class when I was 12, which was a life drawing class at Epsom. And from the outset, all I wanted to do was capture the sense of space which that particular landscape offered.”
After leaving the Slade, Carole began teaching art at Reading University however in 1967, while she and her husband spent the New Year at a teaching colleague’s cottage in Tegryn, she realised that Pembrokeshire would soon become home.
“I knew that I was never going to leave, because I loved the place so much,” she said.
Carole subsequently began exploring the many diverse landscapes that Pembrokeshire has to offer.
“The first thing I always do is sit and watch a particular space, and this is so fundamentally important to me. The space of the Preseli mountains, the space of the field behind my home, the flow of the river or the sea…all these spaces became increasingly apparent and so important, as so much of my art depends on the atmosphere that each particular space creates.”
Carole – who is an Emeritus Professor of Fine Art and Sculpture at Kingston University, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Sculptors and a regular exhibitor at the prestigious Flowers Gallery since 1973 – continued teaching in both painting and sculpture following her move to Pembrokeshire. This included stints at Spain, Scotland and the Royal Academy of Art in London.
Meanwhile her latest exhibition at The Coach House, St Dogmaels, features a wide range of subjects in a cross-section of media, including crayons, chalk, watercolour and inks.
“I don’t think a day goes by when I fail to realise how very fortunate I am, not just to live in such a wonderful village like St Dogmaels, where the people have been so supportive of my work, but that I continue to feel so motivated to paint,” concluded the 84-year-old.
“Without art, my life would have been so terribly boring. At the end of the day , I’ve been one very lucky woman.”
The exhibition will run until January 31, 2025.
EMERGENCY services were called after a car crashed into a house on Nun Street in St Davids on Thursday (Apr 24).
Dyfed-Powys Police and Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service attended the scene at around 4:35pm following reports of a single-vehicle collision.
On arrival, they found that a car had collided with a residential property. Fortunately, no injuries were reported.
The road remained open while the vehicle was recovered.
A spokesperson for Dyfed-Powys Police said: “Dyfed-Powys Police attended a report of a single-vehicle road traffic collision where a car collided with a property on Nun Street, St Davids, at around 4:35pm yesterday. No injuries were reported, and the road remained open while the vehicle was recovered.”
POLICE are appealing for information to help locate a 54-year-old man who has been reported missing from the Milford Haven area.
Neil is described as being around 6ft 2in tall with a shaved head. He has tattoos on his arms and one of his fingers, and sometimes wears glasses.
He was last seen on Friday afternoon (Apr 26) wearing a black Superdry hoodie, ripped jeans, and orange and black Nike Air trainers. Neil is believed to be on foot.
Anyone with information that could help is urged to contact Dyfed-Powys Police: 
| Online portal
| 101@dyfed-powys.police.uk
| Call 101, quoting reference 262 of April 26.
Wales joins UK’s largest firefighting aid convoy
MID and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service (MAWWFRS) has taken part in the UK’s largest ever convoy delivering vital firefighting equipment to Ukraine, joining 17 other Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs) from across the country.
The convoy, coordinated by FIRE AID and supported by the UK Government, left the UK in early April. It travelled through France, Germany and Poland, delivering over 30 fire service vehicles and more than 15,000 items of equipment to support Ukrainian firefighters on the front line of the ongoing war.
Since the Russian invasion in 2022, UK fire services have donated 119 vehicles and over 200,000 pieces of equipment to Ukraine. Each participating service ensured local needs were met before donating surplus kit.
Watch Manager Rob Kershaw represented MAWWFRS on the convoy. He said:
“It’s been a privilege to be part of this convoy and to represent both FIRE AID and Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service.
We received invaluable support and assistance from fire and police services across every country we passed through. Their help in coordinating, escorting, and hosting the convoy was outstanding.”
Chief Fire Officer Roger Thomas KFSM added:
“MAWWFRS is proud to support our colleagues in Ukraine by donating and delivering essential equipment.
The events in Ukraine have deeply affected the fire and rescue community, and this convoy is a demonstration of our ongoing commitment to helping those still working under extreme conditions.”
The donated equipment will support firefighters in Ukraine who continue to operate in war zones to save lives and protect property—often at great personal risk. Since the conflict began, 100 Ukrainian firefighters have been killed and 431 injured. A total of 411 fire stations and 1,700 firefighting vehicles have been destroyed.
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