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Valerie Ganz (1936–2015) was born near Swansea, and studied at the Swansea College of Art. During her early career she took an interest in the industrial landscape and, among other places, she worked above ground at fourteen different collieries. In 1985 she rented a house in Six Bells and, with the permission of the National Coal Board, worked underground at Six Bells Colliery to depict the miners at work. Her work was included in the ‘Mining in Art’ Exhibition at the Glynn Vivian Gallery, Swansea in 1986, alongside the works of Jack Crabtree, Nicholas Evans and Josef Herman. In 1990 she was commissioned by British Coal Opencast to produce a record of the working life in three open cast sites. During her career she worked on many different subjects around the world. Her work is included in the collections of both the National Museum of Wales and the National Library of Wales.