Bryn Parry (1956 - 2023)
Bryn Parry CBE was a Wiltshire based cartoonist and sculptor. Following ten years in the Army, Bryn gave up his regular commission in The Royal Green Jackets to make a living from art. He and his wife Emma, began Bryn Parry Studios (BPS) in a damp cellar in 1986, but over the next 23 years they built BPS into a well-known brand producing high quality gifts based on Bryn’s designs as well as undertaking hundreds of commissions. Bryn’s cartoons and caricatures were sought-after by the Duchy of Cornwall, the Duchy of Lancaster, Sandringham, Lloyds of London, British Army regiments, as well as hundreds of private companies and individuals. Bryn published his first book, Mad Dogs and Englishmen, in 2000 and twelve others subsequently.
In 2007 following a visit to wounded soldiers in hospital, Bryn and Emma founded and ran Help for Heroes (H4H). In 2016, after nine years of serving the nation's wounded, injured and sick, Bryn and Emma stepped down from their executive roles at H4H and set about rebuilding their lives and in Bryn’s case, returning to his cartoons.
Following an inspirational portrait course at the Sculpture School in Devon, Bryn decided to take up sculpture. Initially he concentrated on portraits, including those of wounded soldiers. His cathartic piece ‘Looking Forward’, a study of Simon Brown who was shot through the face in 2006, won the Sculpture Prize in the Armed Forces Art Society’s Articles of War exhibition in Glasgow, and is currently on display at the National Army Museum. His playful and much celebrated 'Cartoons in Bronze' series characterises Bryn's passion for introducing a sense of fun into his artwork. One of his final pieces 'Barn Owl and Vole' pays tribute to his talent as a sculptor.
Bryn very sadly died in April 2023.