Me and my unruly hair talking about my work on ancient standing stones.
I had a fab evening out last week, up The Workers, a lovely gallery in the village of Ynyshir in the Rhondda Valley. On the first Thursday of each month, they host an evening of Words, Arts and Music (WAM) and I was part of it this month. I did a talk about my work, mainly the en plein air pieces I did in collaboration with prehistorian Dewi Bowen, who’s been researching his new book, and filmmaker Melvyn Williams.
Some of the mixed media drawings in my series ‘Yr Helfa’.
Dewi did an illustrated talk about ancient monuments in the area around Rhondda and Melvyn premiered the new film he’s made of me and Dewi on our creative journey across South Wales. Here’s the film below. People in the audience seemed to find it funny, especially the bits of me suffering for my art!!!
A wonderful film!
Thank you 😀
No deadly animals though, unlike in the USA where I was warned to be on the lookout for rattlesnakes and cougars! !!
What a fantastic film. So fun to hear your voice and see you on film. The land is so beautiful — just breathtakingly beautiful. I was glad for the sub-titling though — some of the dialog — just some — is a little difficult for American ears to make out. And the place names, ai yi yi. And it’s nice learning more about you. I share your love for prehistoric art though unlike you I’ve never seen any except in books. The whole notion of painters — because I always think of myself as first and foremost a painter — that these people painted deep in caves … it is so strange and scary. And you certainly do “suffer for your art”! That wind that’s so fierce — but the land is so spectacular. How wonderful to live so near such incredible natural beauty.
Melvyn showed a version without subtitles here in Swansea and some people couldn’t understand some of the dialogue lol! Some very strong accents in there 😀 The place names are Welsh, not many languages like it. I was taken to some ancient rock art when I did a residency in Idaho, and saw some in a Native American museum in Oregon, so there’s some about but not on the scale we have in Europe. I am absolutely fanatical about cave paintings, the work is beautiful and when it’s viewed with the flickering light of burning torches, the effect is extraordinary. The land is certainly stupendously gorgeous, but pretty deadly for the unaware. A few people die each year on the mountains – it’s brilliant sunshine at the bottom but you can see what’s it’s like on top!
Deadly! wow, I had no idea. That really is a powerful wind indeed.
What a wonderful venue to share your art adventures.
Thanks Sharon, it was a good evening 😀