John Uzzell Edwards, also known as Uzzell Edwards, was born in 1934, in Deri; a former coal-mining village in the Rhymney Valley, Wales, England. He attended Bargoed Grammar School and later took a series of jobs, where he was made redundant but made enough money to be able to move to Paris in 1956, where he could pursue his interest in painting, visiting galleries and museums in the French capital. However, he later returned to Wales, where he worked in Pembrokeshire and exhibited in Tenby.

Uzzell Edwards was inspired by Welsh and Celtic art and craft, including Welsh quilts, Celtic crosses and stone inscriptions, mediaeval tiles and ancient manuscripts. He describes his technique as being concerned with pure paint...