Sir Kyffin Williams art tops auction sales

Mountains from Beaumaris by Sir Kyffin fetched £30,000

A trio of paintings by the late Welsh artist Sir Kyffin Williams have taken top place in an art auction, fetching £73,000.

Auctioneers overlooking the sale in Colwyn Bay said it showed that Sir Kyffin remained one of the best loved and expensive Welsh artists for collectors.

One piece up for auction at the Roger Jones sales went for £30,000, which was well above its estimated price.

Sir Kyffin died in 2006, aged 88.

Auctioneer Ben Rogers Jones said the mood at the sale had been "buoyant," with no sign of interest in Sir Kyffin's work diminishing.

"We were always confident of selling the top lots, if not to buyers in the room then to those at home bidding on the Internet. It was a highly successful sale," he said.

The prices for the Welsh artist's work have also remained high, matching sales of two pieces of his work in London last year at Christie's.

The prize painting on sale in Colwyn Bay was an atmospheric Anglesey coastal view, titled "Mountains from Beaumaris".

It was estimated to fetch between £18,000 to £25,000, but eventually reached £30,000.

A view of Llyn Gwynant in Snowdonia signed by Sir Kyffin was sold for £18,000.

Lesser works also found buyers. An oil on canvas of a mountainous landscape with waterfall, painted in about 1960, sold for an above estimate £7,500, as did a watercolour study of Snowdonia mountain tops, titled Pedol yr Wyddfa o Gastell y Gwynt.

Sir Kyffin's works appear in many galleries across Britain and a collection is on permanent exhibition in Oriel Ynys Mon in Anglesey.

He was president of the Royal Cambrian Academy and was appointed a member of the Royal Academy in 1974, and knighted in 1999.