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Valerie Ganz was
born in Swansea. She attended Swansea College of Art and studied painting, sculpture and
stained glass. She remained as a tutor until 1973 when she turned her attention to
painting full time.
As her interest in the landscape of South Wales grew, her attention was drawn
to the landscape of industrial areas and, in particular, the mining industry, she worked at fourteen different collieries.
In 1985 she took a house and studio at Six Bells, Abertillery. For nearly a
year she worked at the Six Bells Colliery, alongside the miners both above ground and at
the coalface. In the evening she made studies of the miners and their families at choir
practice, in the snooker halls and in the chapel. The work formed the basis of many
exhibitions, in particular the mining exhibition at the Glynn Vivian Gallery, Swansea in 1986,
"Mining in Art" with Josef Herman, Jack Crabtree and Nicholas Evans.
