I was delighted to have the lovely Hannah Ellis, the granddaughter of Dylan Thomas and the patron of the Dylan Thomas 100 Festival came to see my art exhibition 'The Life & Times of Dylan Thomas', last Friday.

I have created the exhibition with the idea of taking it on tour and using the imagery to promote Dylan's centenary and the festivals in 2014.

I am hoping to display the exhibition in London, Oxford, The Senedd in Cardiff, The Boat House Llagharne, The Cultural Centre St Clears, Carmarthen and also a location in Cardigan.

Over the last two years I have beencreating an exhibition of pencil drawings, pen and ink drawings and paintings in water colours and acrylics all based on the life of Dylan Thomas. Resently The exhibition went on display at the Gallery in Tapestri Swansea, where there was a re-enactment of one of my paintings 'Dylan's BBC Broadcast from the Grove Uplands 1949. Adrian Metcalf played the role of Dylan and was brilliant in character. My collection of artworknowconsists of26 works, the first one is a sketch which shows Dylan and the Old Grammar School, Swansea. Apart from the painting of the broadcast, the one that really drew attention at the exhibition was that of Dylan and Swansea blitz. I thought I would take this opportunityto share with you some of my works from this exhibition and to show you myinterpretation of some ofDylan's life. .

Last night I spent the evening at a wonderful concert at the Onllwyn Welfare Hall.

The concert was hosted by Onllwyn Male Voice Choir and was put together to help raise funds for a brilliant young Welsh tenor Matthew Ioan-Sims. As well as the Choir Matthewwas also supported by the well known soprano Annwen Williams who sang beautifully.

Mattew has a terrific voice, good sence of humourand a great presence on stage, he has been studying under Patricia O'Neill with vocal coaching from Micheal Pollock and will shortly bestudying under the internationalrenowned Dennis O'Oneill.

If you want to know more about this brilliant up and comming young Welsh artist take a look at his web site on... www.matthewioansims.co.uk

Jeff Phillips

Thousend's gathered to join in the triumphant celebrations of the Swan's promotion to the premier league. Well done the Swan's

Hi all just an update on the exhibition at Llys Glas, Swansea on Friday 27th May, I now have a link to the event which explains all, and here it is... www.tapestri.co.uk Cheers for now Jeff

Hi all

A lot has hapened since I first displayed my painting of the BBC broadcastof Dylan and his friends sitting around a table at The Grove in the Uplands, Swansea. The painting has been on a tour of variousestablishments around Swansea and Mumbles, at the moment it ison display at the Kardomah Cafe (very fitting) however on the 27th of May it will be placed at it's perminant residency, in Llys Glas , which most people will remember as the old Swansea Police Station. Gwalia have compleately renovated the building and what a wonderful job they have made of it, with a fabulous tearoom and restaraunt, working art studios and two large exhibition halls. The painting willonce again be unvailed asthe centre piece of the full exhibitionof The Life & Times of Dylan Thomas. On the evening of the launch we are hoping to have a re-enactment of the event that is taking place in the painting with 'lookalikes reading the actual scripts', together with other entertainment. I will continue to update this blog as we move closer to the event date and know more details of our entertainment. Jeff

Hi all, can I say it has been my pleasure and privilage to have been part of the welcoming party to host travel representatives from the USA this week, on a flying visit. The event was organized by Visit Wales and The British Connection inc, who approached Alan Maggs and myself as partners of the Dylan Thomas Experienceto organize guidesfor the visit. The party were fromNew York,Sausalito CA, Washington DC, Baltimore and Atanta Georgia.On Monday evening after arrival we took them to The Dylan ThomasCentre Swanseawhere we were greeted by Jo Furber the centres manager and historian Who gave them a guided tour of the Dylan Thomas Exhibition. We then went for a superbreception andevening mealat the Morgans Hotel next to the DT Centre.

On Tuesday we gave them a tour of Mumbles and 5 Cwmdokin Drive DT's birth place,and then on to Dylan's grave in Llagharne, where we had arrainged for Peter Read (actor, writer) to recite some of DT's poems in character 'very atmospheric'. We then took them to the Sea View Hotel, Llagharne where Dylan once lived for luch andthenon to the Boat House tour, before returning to Swansea's Dragon Hotel where they were staying. On Tuesday evening we took them for another superb meal at Patrick's Mumbles. A good time was had by all and we are sure that we have made good friends and created an opportunity to show a little of what we can offer visitors to our beautiful region.

Jeff Phillips