My work begins with stories.

Welsh history and mythology, Dante's Inferno, the Book of Revelation, the Seven Deadly Sins, mental health, music, fairy tales and the strange contradictions of human behaviour have all found their way into my art.

Some of those stories have resulted in paintings.

Others have resulted in half-tonne dragons.

I am a Welsh narrative artist working across oil painting and mixed-media sculpture, creating highly detailed works in which symbolism, research and storytelling are as important as the finished image.

This page provides selected stories, key facts, background information and resources for journalists, writers, broadcasters, researchers, arts organisations and educational institutions interested in my work.

For interviews, features, editorial enquiries or further information, please get in touch.

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Featured Story

Emrys — The Great Welsh Dragon

The Story of Wales, Forged into One Monumental Sculpture

He isn't simply a dragon. He is Wales.

Standing 2.8 metres tall and weighing approximately half a tonne, Emrys — The Great Welsh Dragon is a monumental sculpture created to tell the story of Wales through one of its most powerful national symbols.

Built from copper, steel, iron and Welsh slate, his body contains Welsh history, industry, engineering, mythology and folklore.

His legs descend like the mine shafts that once drove Welsh industry. Railways travel through him. Castles inhabit his landscape. The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is incorporated into his wings.

One side of Emrys explores Welsh history and industry.

The other enters the mythology and folklore of Wales, including stories from the Mabinogion.

His tail, Wales Beyond Wales, looks beyond the country's borders to the Welsh people and their influence throughout the wider world.

Even his skin tells a story.

Approximately 960 individually created copper scales cover his body, 742 of them named.

Emrys took two and a half years to create and today has a permanent home in the Great Hall at Swansea University.

But to understand Emrys, you have to do more than look at him.

You have to read the dragon.

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Emrys in 60 Seconds

Height: 2.8 metres

Weight: Approximately half a tonne

Materials: Copper, steel, iron and Welsh slate

Time to Create: Two and a half years

Copper Scales: Approximately 960, including 742 named scales

History: Welsh mining, industry, railways, castles and engineering are incorporated throughout the sculpture

Engineering: The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct appears within his wings

Mythology: Welsh folklore and stories from the Mabinogion inhabit the other side of the dragon

Wales Beyond Wales: His tail recognises Welsh influence beyond the borders of Wales

Permanent Home: The Great Hall, Swansea University, Wales

Artist: Julia O'Sullivan

The ambition behind Emrys was enormous but simple:

To tell the story of Wales through the body of the Welsh Dragon.

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What's Hidden Inside the Dragon?

Emrys was designed to be explored rather than understood in a single glance.

The closer you look, the more Wales begins to appear.

The Industrial Dragon

Copper, iron, coal and slate were not chosen simply because they looked right.

They are part of the story.

The materials and construction reference the industries that helped shape Wales, including the great copper industry of Swansea — once known as Copperopolis — and the mining and slate industries that transformed communities and landscapes.

Even Emrys's legs become part of that narrative, descending like mine shafts beneath him.

This is not decoration added to a dragon.

The history is built into his bones.

A Landscape Running Through His Body

Railways, castles and engineering appear throughout Emrys, turning the dragon himself into a three-dimensional landscape of Wales.

The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct travels through his wings.

His slate base becomes a map of Wales beneath him.

Architecture, transport, industry and landscape collide with the anatomy of a mythical creature.

The dragon becomes the country he represents.

Mythology on the Other Side

Turn around Emrys and the story changes.

History gives way to mythology.

The ancient stories, characters and folklore of Wales — including the Mabinogion — inhabit this side of the sculpture.

That division was deliberate.

One side explores the Wales that was built, worked, fought over and inhabited.

The other explores the Wales that was imagined, remembered and passed from one generation to another.

Together they become one dragon.

Hundreds of Stories in His Scales

Emrys is covered with approximately 960 individually created copper scales.

742 are named.

The scales transform his skin into another layer of storytelling, allowing individuals, places and stories to become physically embedded within the dragon.

From a distance, they create his surface.

Up close, they become something else entirely.

Individual pieces within a much larger Welsh story.

Wales Beyond Wales

The story does not stop at the end of the country.

Emrys's tail represents Wales Beyond Wales — acknowledging Welsh people, communities and influence beyond the borders of Wales.

It was important to me that the sculpture did not present Wales as an isolated place.

People leave.

Ideas travel.

Culture travels with them.

The dragon may belong to Wales, but his tail reaches outward.

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From an Idea to Half a Tonne of Dragon

Emrys took two and a half years to create.

Like much of my work, he began with research rather than fabrication.

The challenge was not simply to build an impressive Welsh Dragon. It was to work out how history, industry, landscape, mythology and identity could physically become part of him without turning the sculpture into a collection of disconnected symbols.

Every material and detail had to earn its place.

Copper could carry the story of Swansea.

Slate could become Wales itself.

Legs could become mine shafts.

Wings could carry an aqueduct.

A tail could reach beyond Wales.

Gradually, the dragon became a narrative.

And eventually that narrative became Emrys.

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And Then I Put Him Back on the Flag

Reimagining the Welsh Flag for the 21st Century

Years after creating Emrys, another thought occurred to me.

I had taken the Welsh Dragon and filled him with Wales.

So what would happen if I put him back where the Welsh Dragon is perhaps most recognised of all?

On the Welsh flag.

The result is my reimagining of the Welsh flag for the 21st century.

But I didn't want to replace the identity of the existing flag.

Quite the opposite.

I wanted to upcycle it.

The red dragon remains at its heart, but this time the dragon is Emrys — a Welsh Dragon whose physical body already contains the history, industry, mythology and culture of the country he represents.

Behind him rise the mountains of Eryri, connecting the national symbol to the Welsh landscape.

Beneath his feet lies a traditional Welsh blanket pattern, bringing another layer of Welsh culture and craftsmanship into the design.

The familiar red, white and green identity remains recognisably Welsh.

But now there is more of Wales inside it.

That is why I think of the design as a particularly Welsh kind of upcycling.

I haven't thrown the old flag away. I've asked what else it could say.

The existing Welsh flag already possesses something extraordinary: one of the most distinctive national symbols in the world.

My intention was never to erase that.

It was to take the dragon we already have and give him a story.

Emrys brings Welsh history and mythology.

Eryri brings the landscape.

The Welsh blanket brings craft, pattern and tradition.

And together they create a flag that looks backwards and forwards at the same time.

A celebration of where Wales has come from, what makes it distinctive and the identity it carries into the future.

The dragon was always Welsh.

Now the Wales inside the dragon can be read too.

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From Flagpole to Bumper Sticker

The same design has also been adapted into a bumper sticker.

There is something I rather like about that.

Emrys began as a half-tonne sculpture requiring two and a half years of work.

Now he can travel around Wales on the back of a car.

The bumper sticker takes the same idea behind the flag — Emrys, Welsh landscape and Welsh identity — and turns it into a small, mobile expression of Welsh pride.

One dragon stands permanently in the Great Hall at Swansea University.

The others can travel.

A little piece of Wales going wherever the road takes it.

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Explore the Full Story of Emrys

There is far more inside Emrys than can be covered on a media page.

The complete story explores the research, symbolism, construction and extraordinary amount of detail hidden throughout the sculpture.

Inside the Great Welsh Dragon

Discover the history, symbolism and stories built into Emrys.

READ INSIDE THE GREAT WELSH DRAGON

The Dragon That Found His Way Home

Follow the story of Emrys and his eventual journey to his permanent home in Wales.

READ THE DRAGON THAT FOUND HIS WAY HOME

Explore Emrys

View the sculpture, details and complete artwork information.

EXPLORE EMRYS

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