Caneuon Gwerin

Inside the image.

A square album cover combines a warm-toned landscape photograph with a large inset portrait. The landscape fills the frame: a shallow, winding stretch of water or wet ground runs from the lower centre into the distance, broken up by many rounded, dark brown and olive boulders. Low hills form a hazy horizon beneath a peach-orange sky, brightest at the upper right. The image has a soft, subdued, slightly aged-looking colour range of rust, ochre, brown and muted green.

A large reddish-brown rock occupies much of the left foreground. Within its lower portion is an oval-edged portrait of a smiling man, shown from the shoulders up and turned slightly towards the right. His dark hair and pale face stand out against the shadowed, earthy setting; the portrait edge blends into the rock and surrounding image rather than appearing in a sharp rectangular frame. More rounded rocks crowd the lower edge, while the stream and scattered stones lead the eye back towards the distant hills.

A dark red horizontal band crosses the upper left and extends roughly three-quarters of the way across the cover. It carries the large, widely spaced cream-coloured serif capitals “DAFYDD IWAN”. Near the lower right, a narrower dark red strip overlays the rocks and carries the words “caneuon gwerin” in cream lowercase italic lettering, with generous spacing between the letters. Both text panels sit directly over the landscape. No outer border is visible. The overall treatment is photographic, with the portrait composited into the landscape; slight softness and grain are visible across the image.