1916
Born 20th November, Emlyn Mill, Adpar, Newcastle Emlyn, Cardiganshire.
-1930
Adpar County Junior School.
1930-1934
Llandysul County Grammar School.
1935-1937
Carmarthen School of Art. Awarded Prize for Animal Drawing 1934–1935, and the Prize for Figure Drawing 1935–1936.
1937-1938
West of England College of Art, Bristol. Won Royal Exhibition Scholarship in Painting to the R.C.A.
1938-1940 & 1946-1947
Royal College of Art, London. Awarded the Diploma Prize, College Prize for Life Drawing and Rodney Burn RA awarded a two-guinea prize for a landscape in his Diploma Exhibition.
1940
Objector’s Tribunal. Directed to land work, on the forestry and in food production.
1942
First contribution to a National Eisteddfod of Wales exhibition. Commissioned by Paul Matt (designer for the Brynmawr Furniture Company) to design and execute a backcloth for Meini Gwagedd, a play by Kitchener Davies.
1947
Worked as a graphic designer in the London offices of J. Walter Thompson.
1948
First exhibited at the Royal Academy. Moved to Portsmouth to take up an appointment as Lecturer in Painting at the College of Art, where he remained until 1953. First correspondence with Winifred Coombe-Tennant who in turn introduced him to David Bell at the Welsh Arts Council.
1949
First London exhibition – with Jack Wright – at the Paul Alexander Gallery. A series of paintings depicting chapel going rituals in 1920s rural Cardiganshire, its festivals and funerals.
1951
First of many contributions to the annual ‘Pictures for Welsh Schools’ exhibitions organised by the Society of Education through Art (S.E.A.), and staged at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff.
1950-1953
Paintings of the miners and their landscape near Pont-rhyd-y-fen.
1953
Moved to Winchester where he taught at the School of Art. First illustrations for the Radio Times.
1953-1958
Paintings of farm life in Cardiganshire, many executed for Society for Education through Art exhibitions.
1956
Awarded ‘Gold Medal for Fine Art’ at the National Eisteddfod of Wales in Aberdare. Designed dust jacket for Glyn Jones’ first novel The Valley, the City, the Village, published by J. M. Dent.
1958
Designed and executed sets for a production of Antigone at the National Eisteddfod of Wales, Ebbw Vale.
1959
Adjudicator, Youth Section in Painting and Drawing at the National Eisteddfod of Wales, Caernarfon. First illustrations for Shell County Guides.
1960-1964
Paintings based on the seasons, and on the growth and felling of trees in the Savernake Forest, begin edging their way towards abstraction.
1963
Commissions from Barclays Bank, Glaxo Laboratories and the General Post Office.
1965
Solo exhibition at the Leicester Galleries, London. Invited to become Honorary Member of the Royal Cambrian Academy of Art.
1965-1969
Paintings of seasonal changes in his garden and an examination of the inner structures of blooms and seed pods.
1967
Six lithographs of Welsh landscapes commissioned by The Collectors’ Guild, Madison Avenue, New York for a scheme organised by Andrew Purchase and printed by the Curwen Press (zinc plates). The Curwen commissioned two further lithographs of Caernarfon and Harlech castles, printed from the stones by Stanley Jones. John Elwyn produced more lithographs for the American market in 1971 (printed in seven colours at the Curwen in editions of 250).
1968
Invited selector for the ‘Pictures for Welsh Schools’ exhibition, organised by the Society for Education through Art and the Arts Council for the National Museum of Wales. Second solo exhibition at the Leicester Galleries in November.
1969
The Welsh Arts Council commissioned two paintings of chapels for the Recording Wales project.
1970
Married Gillian Butterworth. After ten years of near abstraction returned to a more direct representation of the Cardiganshire landscape.
1976
Fine Art Adjudicator (with Kyffin Williams) at the National Eisteddfod of Wales, Cardigan. Retired from Winchester School of Art.
1979
Elected member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour.
1981
Lithograph of Capel Hawen, Rhydlewis reproduced as a Christmas card for the Commission for the Protection of Rural Wales.
1982
Elected Honorary Member of the Gorsedd, the Bardic Council of the Eisteddfod, adopting the Bardic title Arlunydd Dyfed (Painter of Dyfed).
1984
Commissioned portrait of Dr Raymond Edwards, Principal of the University of Wales College of Music and Drama, Cardiff.
1986
Commissioned portrait of Sir Alun Talfan Davies, President of H.T.V. Wales.
1990
Diagnosed with bowel cancer and In May underwent major surgery at Winchester.
1993
Twenty-nine line drawings illustrating House of Leaves, a volume of poems by Dafydd ap Gwilym, published in a limited edition by the Old Stile Press, Llandogo, Gwent.
1996
Honorary D.Litt. awarded by the University of Wales in recognition of his contribution to art in Wales. The National Library of Wales staged a retrospective exhibition of his work to commemorate his eightieth birthday.
1997
Last solo exhibition held at the Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff. John Elwyn died at 4.30am on 13th November at the neurological unit of Southampton General Hospital. He was cremated 20th November at Southampton Crematorium, on his 81st birthday.
1998
Ashes interred on 6th April in a plot alongside his family at Parc Cemetery outside Newcastle Emlyn.
1999
Gregynog Press published in book form The Twelve, wood engravings illustrating Dysgyblion yr Iesu (Disciples of the Jesus) that were cut in 1944, with accompanying extracts from the Bible selected by Dr Glyn Tegai Hughes.
1999-2000
Memorial exhibition tours the National Library of Wales, Bell Fine Art in Winchester, Carmarthenshire County Museum, and the Royal Cambrian Academy.
2016
A Quiet Sincerity centenary exhibition at the School of Art Museum and Galleries, Aberystwyth University.
2020
Gillian Butterworth (Mrs John Elwyn Davies) dies at age 89 in Winchester on 19 January.
