ST DAVIDS.- An exhibition of drawings and watercolours depicting Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood, by pop art legend Sir Peter Blake, has made its way to Thomas’ beloved West Wales.

Llareggub: Peter Blake illustrates Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood arrived at Oriel y Parc Landscape Gallery and Visitor Centre, St Davids, on May 17th 2014. It features 170 visual interpretations of the Welsh poet’s best loved play.

The exhibition at Oriel y Parc, in the heart of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, follows a celebrated launch at the National Museum Wales in Cardiff.

The St Davids venue, the home of Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales in Pembrokeshire, sits between Laugharne – where Dylan Thomas wrote Under Milk Wood – and Fishguard, where the film of the book was shot in 1972.

Tegryn Jones, Chief Executive of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority, which owns and manages Oriel y Parc, said: “It feels very fitting that this outstanding exhibition should come to us at Oriel y Parc, and we couldn’t be more thrilled.

“We hope people will take the opportunity to see this extraordinary collection of work by Sir Peter Blake in the heart of the West Wales landscape which inspired Dylan Thomas and so many other cultural greats.”

The Llareggub exhibition presents Thomas’ most famous play in a new way, through the eyes of one of Britain’s most famous living artists, Sir Peter Blake, who is hailed as the father of pop art. He is well known for designing The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album in 1967.

Sir Peter Blake said: “I am excited to be visiting Oriel y Parc for the first time for the opening of my Under Milk Wood exhibition of drawings and watercolours. It will also be my first trip to St Davids, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing this corner of Wales that was so close to Dylan Thomas’ heart.”

The exhibition forms part of a Welsh Government-sponsored festival, Dylan Thomas 100, celebrating 100 years since the birth of the renowned Welsh poet.

Sir Peter Blake admits he can’t quote Under Milk Wood but having listened to the play or read it at least twice a week for the past 28 years, he has produced 170 visual interpretations.

“I was first aware of Under Milk Wood while studying at the Royal College of Art,” he said. “The Welsh students at the college picked up on the play immediately.

“As soon as I decided to illustrate Under Milk Wood, I researched it, read it and listened to it again and again.

“I’ve always treated it as a separate piece of work. I work on Under Milk Wood at home in the evening. It’s almost like a ‘separate me’ doing it.”

The exhibition at Oriel y Parc includes three distinct groups of work: portraits of the characters, a series of watercolours illustrating the dream sequences at the beginning of the play and a group of works described as ‘topographical’, which includes scenes and locations from the play.

Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales Curator Beth McIntyre said: “Under Milk Wood has rarely been illustrated and there is certainly nobody who’s come close to the time and effort that Blake has put in to illustrating the play. It is a very personal body of work and we are privileged to be showing it at Oriel y Parc.

“It is Blake’s interpretation and Blake’s selections. This is how he sees the play. He looks at every part of a passage of the text, every detail of a description. If you look hard enough you will find everything there, including in one work the dandruff and nailparings.”

Llareggub: Peter Blake illustrates Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood is at Oriel y Parc from May 17th to September 23rd 2014.

Oriel y Parc is owned and managed by the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority, working in partnership with Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales.

The venue includes a free, world-class gallery showcasing artists’ interpretations of landscape, taken from the vast collections of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales.