CARDIFF.- Under Milk Wood is today recognised as Dylan Thomas’s masterpiece. Yet, when Sir Peter Blake started to illustrate the play in 1986, the artist admits it ‘wasn’t in fashion.’ 28 years on, having invested hundreds of hours reading and listening to the drama, Sir Peter Blake’s take on Under Milk Wood is to be the subject of a new exhibition at National Museum Cardiff (23 November 2013 – 16 March 2014), a new book and a BBC Cymru Wales television programme.

Llareggub: Peter Blake illustrates Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood presents the play in a new way, through the eyes of one of Britain’s most famous living artists. It is a celebration of the renowned Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas, marking 100 years since his birth and forming part of a nation-wide Welsh Government sponsored festival Dylan Thomas 100 (www.dylanthomas100.com).

“There’s a Peter Blake who’s a painter and a Peter Blake who does illustrations,” said Blake, who celebrated his 80th Birthday last year. The new exhibition at National Museum Cardiff certainly demonstrates the later. The artist admits he can’t quote the play but having listened to it or read it at least twice a week for the last 28 years, he has produced 170 visual interpretations, all of which feature in the exhibition.

“I was first aware of Under Milk Wood while studying at the Royal College of Art,” said Sir Peter Blake. “The Welsh students at the college picked up on the play immediately!

“As soon as I decided to illustrate Under Milk Wood, I researched it, read it and listened to it again and again. George Martin’s recording became my favourite. I still play it a couple of times a week and read it once a month.

“I’ve always treated it as a separate piece of work. I work on Under Milk Wood at home in the evening. It’s almost like a ‘separate me’ doing it.”

When Peter Blake was approached by Michael Mitchell of Libanus Press in 1985 and asked to illustrate the text, his intention was to produce a small series of wood engravings to illustrate the play in a limited edition book. However, he abandoned the wood engravings and the book didn’t materialised at the time.

Now, in 2013, Blake is ready to exhibit his illustrations in the form of an exhibition, a book and a television programme.

The exhibition includes three distinct groups: portraits of the characters, a series of watercolours illustrating the dream sequences at the beginning of the play and a group of works described as ‘topographical’, which includes scenes and locations from the play.

The 60 detailed portraits are all pencil drawings. Blake has visualised everyone who is mentioned in the play’s cast list - from Mr Mog Edwards, the draper to Nogood Boyo, the young fisherman, lazy and Captain Cat, the old blind sea captain. These portraits are both imaginary and real. Blake believes that a face can’t be invented therefore all the portraits are based on images he has found – in books or magazines.

The Dreams are an integral part of Under Milk Wood as almost all the characters are introduced to the audience or reader through a moment of their dreams. There are 26 works in this sequence, each one now numbered and inscribed at the bottom with the relevant passage from the text. Using watercolour adds a dreamlike quality to the works. Just as the dreams are surreal, Blake’s visualisations are also surreal.

The third and largest set of works, described as ‘topographical’, includes illustrations of scenes and locations from the play and all other images. Describing this group of works, Beth McIntyre, Curator of the exhibition, Amguedda Cymru – National Museum Wales said: “Blake looks at every part of a passage of the text, every detail of a description. If you look hard enough you will find everything there, including in one work the dandruff and nailparings.”

The scenes and locations have been completed in a range of media, but the majority of them are collages. Blake spends hours meticulously cutting up books and magazines. Several of the works in this section include photographs that Blake took himself when he visited Laugharne in the 1980s with Michael Mitchell.

Beth McIntyre continued: “Under Milk Wood has rarely been illustrated and there is certainly nobody who’s come close to the time and effort that Blake has put in to illustrating the play. It is a very personal body of work and we are privileged to be showing it at National Museum Cardiff.

“It is Blake’s interpretation and Blake’s selections. This is how he sees the play.”

After nearly 30 years, a book is being published by Enitharmon Editions and Queen Ann’s Press to coincide with the exhibition. BBC Cymru Wales has also commissioned Mentorn Media to produce a half hour, one-off documentary on Sir Peter Blake’s love of Dylan Thomas. This will precede the BBC’s Dylan Thomas season next year.

The exhibition will be shown at Oriel y Parc in St Davids, Pemrokeshire from 17 May to 23 September 2014.