The final drawing from last Sunday’s trek around ancient ancestral sites took us up a mountain to the Pentre’r Bebyll ring cairn up above Pontarddulais. At 860 feet, the summit of Mynydd Pysgodlyn was really cold and I was already chilly from doing the two previous drawings at Bryn y Rhyd and Graig Fawr. This circular earthwork is about 60 feet in diameter but only a couple of feet high. It’s possible that there were once standing stones but now there’s just an earth bank remaining.
It’s difficult to draw something that is simultaneously so large (in diameter) and so small (in height) so I threw myself onto the freezing ground and focussed on the contours in front of me, drawing them boldly in carbon and white conte crayon across the paper that I’d previously prepared with home made walnut ink. It was a very quick drawing because I was cold, tired and fed up. Sketching on top of a previous drawing speeds up the process a lot and makes it unpredictable and spontaneous. I finished as I started, spattered with mud.
I’m travelling around South West Wales with archaeologist Dewi Bowen who is researching his new book on Neolithic / Bronze Age monuments. His previous book on the standing stones of Ancient Siluria (South East Wales) can be found here. Accompanying us is film maker Melvyn Williams who is recording a documentary about the our experiences. Some of Melvyn’s short films can be seen here. I’m working on a series of expressive drawings of ancestral sites and if you want to see some of my other artworks, please click here.
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The drawing looks great. I really like the earth tones. Have a lovely day. Greetings from the sunny Baltic Sea.
Thank you 🙂 I’m afraid we’re sending some rain your way
Love this one. So mystical.
The place was very special, very atmospheric. I’m trying hard to experience places in the way that the ancestors would have.
That’s a great idea. I had kinda undertaken a similar project. I wanted to make charcoal drawings of all old architecture in Pune, India. I did just one – a church in Gothic style. (I’m an amateur though, so it’s just an attempt). I hope I complete the series sometime.
Oh do continue. I’m finding that as I draw more monuments, I get more of a feel for them, an affinity 🙂