‘What Do Artists Do All Day? IV’

I’m a member of an art collective called 15 Hundred Lives and we have a regular event at the Creative Bubble Artspace in Swansea. We open the door to the public for two days a month and invite people to see what it is that artists do all day. Many people only experience art once it’s on a gallery wall and have no idea what goes into producing it. We’re trying to break down those barriers and give people a chance to pop in at any stage of the genesis of a new artwork. This month we are working to the theme of memory and inviting people to bring a memory in to share with us. We had lots today – some did drawings, one brought a pinhole photograph and we even had poetry and a piece of performance art to inspire us.

I haven’t worked like this before. I normally draw obsessively from life or, at a pinch, from research and photographs. I made a start using a sketch I made of my little nephew a few months ago and then worked back from him into my past. This is it at the end of Day 1 – I have a full day of work on it tomorrow. It’s on 2 pieces of heavyweight cotton rag paper, each A0, stretched onto the wall – it’s pretty big. I gave the whole lot a coat of gesso yesterday and rubbed it with yellow ochre acrylic paint and then drew today with carbon, charcoal, oil bars, white conte crayon and a reed pen with Indian ink.

More tomorrow……..