Swansea University Art Collection

Last Fag by David Carpinini

Born in the Afan Valley, David Carpanini is one of Wales’ most respected artists.  

His work is almost totally devoted to the presentation of the valleys and former mining communities of South Wales where he was brought up. Lonely figures, scarred landscapes and perching terraces are the images to which he is faithful and to which he attributes the development of his creative imagination.  

The main Figure in ‘Last Fag’ depicts a miner with a cigarette in hand. From the title we presume this to be his last fag before starting his shift. The subject of working people in their own towns is typical Carpanini, and so is the slightly distorted, fisheye perspective. This technique somehow roots the people in the environment – they seem almost to have grown out of the paving stones.