George Chapman was born in 1908 in London and trained as a commercial designer before giving it up to pursue a career as a painter in 1937. In 1953 he rented a studio in the Rhondda, where he discovered the material to inspire his paintings. George returned to paint the South Wales Valleys over the next 10 years, moving to Aberaeron in 1964. Rhondda and its community never lost its appeal and he was undertaking more paintings of the Valleys when he died in 1993.