Artist: Cartoonist & Sculptor
Bryn Parry CBE
Bryn Parry’s quintessentially English cartoons adorn countless country houses, shooting lodges and fishing bothies across the country, as well as mugs, Christmas cards and Aga-based tea towels. His cartoons have been a regular feature in ‘The Field’ and ‘Country Life’ for decades, and have been immortalised in fourteen books celebrating country life including ‘101 Shooting Excuses’. Not surprisingly, Bryn has joined the ranks of the great British cartoonists in the National Cartoon Museum in London, and now shares wall space with Hogarth, Rowlandson, Pont, Spy and Thelwell.
However very few of his devotees know that in the last fifteen years of his life, Bryn turned his attention to sculpture. Starting with portraits and studies, Bryn inevitably soon turned his hand to sculpting cartoon animals, producing just fourteen rare examples, all cast in bronze at the Talos Art Foundry.
The Talos Gallery is enormously proud to show five of these rare pieces as part of the 2024 Summer Exhibition – backed up by a unique selection of original cartoons straight from the artist’s studio, some of which have never been seen before.
His cartoon artwork on show includes...
More about Bryn Parry CBE
Bryn Parry CBE (founder of Help for Heroes) was a Wiltshire based cartoonist and sculptor. Following ten years in the Army, Bryn gave up his regular commission in The Royal Green Jackets to make a living from art. Through the medium of cartoons he authored and published many books and his caricatures were sought after and commissioned by many including the Duchy of Cornwall, the Duchy of Lancaster, Sandringham, Lloyds of London, British Army regiments, as well as hundreds of private companies and individuals.
Bryn Parry and his wife Emma, began Bryn Parry Studios (BPS) in a damp cellar in 1986, but over the next 23 years they built BPS into a well-known brand producing high quality gifts based on Bryn’s designs as well as undertaking hundreds of commissions. Bryn’s cartoons and caricatures were sought-after by the Duchy of Cornwall, the Duchy of Lancaster, Sandringham, Lloyds of London, British Army regiments, as well as hundreds of private companies and individuals. Bryn published his first book, Mad Dogs and Englishmen, in 2000 and twelve others subsequently.
In 2007 following a visit to wounded soldiers in hospital, Bryn and Emma founded and ran Help for Heroes (H4H). In 2016, after nine years of serving the nation's wounded, injured and sick, Bryn and Emma stepped down from their executive roles at H4H and set about rebuilding their lives and in Bryn’s case, returning to his cartoons.
Following an inspirational portrait course at the Sculpture School in Devon, Bryn decided to take up sculpture. Initially he concentrated on portraits, including those of wounded soldiers. His cathartic piece ‘Looking Forward’, a study of Simon Brown who was shot through the face in 2006, won the Sculpture Prize in the Armed Forces Art Society’s Articles of War exhibition in Glasgow, and is currently on display at the National Army Museum. His playful and much celebrated 'Cartoons in Bronze' series characterises Bryn's passion for introducing a sense of fun into his artwork. One of his final pieces 'Barn Owl and Vole' pays tribute to his talent as a sculptor.
