A bare red wall near Llanelli beach has been transformed into a vivid five-panel community mural celebrating the town’s history, identity and spirit – paid for entirely from the artist’s own pocket.
Jenks, a Carmarthenshire-based muralist who has painted community pieces across the region funded by the council, said he had decided his hometown deserved the same treatment.
The finished work stretches across a long boundary wall near North Dock in the Seaside area of Llanelli, in a spot arranged by a local contact named Michelle.
Each of the five panels carries a single word representing a human emotion, illustrated with scenes and landmarks drawn from Llanelli’s past and present. They are Joy, Struggle, Love, Pride and Hope – and each tells its own story about what the town means to the people who live there.
Joy shows children running carefree along the beach at sunset, with a distinctive building from the Millennium Coastal Park visible on the right.
Struggle takes a starker tone – rendered in grey against a purple sky, it depicts a worker labouring at the Llanelli Tinplate Works, a nod to the industrial heritage that shaped the town for generations.
Love places two figures – a couple embracing – in front of recognisable Llanelli landmarks including the town hall clock tower, bathed in warm orange and red tones beneath a glowing heart.
Pride is perhaps the most local of all: a fire-breathing Welsh dragon charges across a rugby pitch flanked by two stadia, with a scoreboard in the background showing “Llanelli 9 Seland Newydd 3” – a nod to the legendary 1972 result when Llanelli RFC defeated the All Blacks, a victory still celebrated as one of the greatest days in Welsh rugby.
Hope, the final panel, shows a child in a red Welsh shirt bearing the word “Dyfodol” – meaning “future” in Welsh – reaching toward a sunrise over the water, with wind turbines and the distant silhouette of Port Talbot’s steelworks on the horizon.
Writing on social media after completing the work, Jenks said he had thoroughly enjoyed the process. “My project for this week has been this little beauty in Llanelli,” he said. “A community piece that I’ve funded myself. I’ve painted a few of these around Carmarthenshire funded by the council and my hometown was missing one.”
He thanked those who had kept him going throughout the week. “Cheers to everyone that offered me tea and coffee and the passers by that have beeped while I’ve been enjoying myself in the sun,” he said. “Hope you like the new addition to Seaside.”
The mural is the latest in a growing body of public art Jenks has created across the Swansea Bay region. He previously paid tribute to Meyrick Sheen with a mural in Port Talbot, and also transformed Gowerton’s Ty Trafle School with a striking graffiti mural created in collaboration with pupils.
The new work can be found near North Dock in the Seaside area of Llanelli.
