A FEW hours before the death of Dylan Thomas in 1953, Welsh artist Ceri Richards made a series of 40 drawings in his copy of Thomas' Collected Poems1934-1952.

Ceri Richards was aware that Dylan Thomas' poetry and prose aims to conjure responses in the hearer's imagination, and he offers his own visual response to "the great richness, the fruitfulness and the great cyclic movement and rhythms of the poems of Dylan Thomas".

The resulting works could be said to be illuminations rather than illustrations.

Continuing King Street Gallery's commemoration of the Dylan Thomas Centenary Year, the gallery is delighted to be able to show a selection of Ceri Richards' images from a private collection.

Some of these works have never been shown to the public before, and include a study for the lithograph ‘And Death Shall Have No Dominion’.

Preceding the opening on Friday, May 23, the locally born poet and writer on art, Professor Tony Curtis, will be giving a talk called ‘Ceri's Dylan’, which will examine the artist's interpretations of the poetry of Dylan Thomas and share some insights from his newly published book: ‘My Life with Dylan’.

The talk will start at 5pm with the preview following on at 6pm.

This exhibition in the Chate Room of King Street Gallery, Carmarthen runs until Thursday June, 5.