Noёlle studied Fine Art at St Martin's School of Art, London. She and her family have lived in the old game keepers cottage for Plas Tan y Bwlch in the Vale of Ffestiniog for nearly forty years. Her work reflects her love and concern for the surrounding land.
Since 2008 Noёlle has been painting, drawing and writing in each season in the mountain woodland near her home and on the headland of Pen Llŷn overlooking Ynys Enlli. She makes semi-abstract paintings which attempt to visually capture the essence of experience - whether of being in landscape or living in a changing and complicated world. She also makes artist's books which are held in collections of the British Library, V & A and National Library of Wales.
Her first artist's book 'Intimate Land' was made in 1988 as a lament for the planting of hundreds of acres of conifers in Tan y Bwlch in the 1960’s. Her family bought and felled thirty acres of conifer plantation in the early 1990’s replanting with native trees and this land is the subject of the collaborative folio Hafod Woodland - Snowdonia Rainforest with Kim Atkinson. Noёlle and Kim have collaborated on a number of projects since 2010, most recently during their residency in the Sub-Antarctic Rainforests of Southern Chile
Noëlle Griffiths is currently exhibiting in a joint exhibition with Kim Atkinson entitled 'Moss Garden' - details below. (exhibition will run until December 24, 2024)
MOSS GARDEN an exhibition of folios, paintings and prints which explore the Celtic Rainforests of North Wales and the Sub-Antarctic Forest of South Chile.
"Since 2010 we have met each season on the headland of Pen Llŷn and woodland of Eryri to witness and record through drawing, painting and writing our experiences of being in nature. We made our first collaborative artists' book 'Bird Song' in response to the sounds we heard, and a later collaborative book 'Moss Garden' responding to music by Bowie and Eno with the same title. Making this book became the starting point for this exhibition."
Moss Garden - Eryri Rainforest. An edition of five unique folios of paintings, relief prints and digital bi-lingual text of selected mosses and liverworts found in Ceunant Llennyrch near Maentwrog, Eryri. In each season we made paintings of place, sound and habitat in the woodland and later in our studios we made microscope paintings responding to the mosses and liverworts (bryophytes) collected.
With related paintings on canvas and paper: we selected microscope paintings made by the other for each season. Using each as a starting point, we made paintings which depart from the observational depictions of bryophytes.
Hafod Woodland - Eryri Rainforest. Two unique folios of paintings and digital bi-lingual text which record, over two years, the changes to woodland as it is thinned, and animals are introduced to create a more diverse woodland pasture. We painted small samples of plants from each habitat and season under the microscope.
With selected paintings made at Hafod in each season and artist's books and prints.
Isla Navarino - Sub-Antarctic Forest. An edition of four folios of paintings with digital text in English, Welsh, Spanish and Yahgan made during our residency at the Cape Horn International Centre, Chile. We spent time walking, painting, drawing and making notes as a response to Sea, Forest, Water and the Plants and Birds that inhabit them on this remote island.
Isla Navarino Dreaming : a series of twelve paintings and artist's books.
Mynydd Tir-y-cwmwd and Y Winllan collaborative relief print panels, paintings and artists' books inspired by the woodland and headland close to Plas Glyn y Weddw.