Finishing A Sketchbook

A few weeks into the pandemic lockdown, when it became obvious that it was going to last a long while, I set myself some lockdown challenges. One is to improve my painting skills, which I’ve been doing with the Friday Cheese and Wine Painting Club on Facebook, practising faking well known paintings. Another is to do Tai Chi every day, which I’ve pretty much managed. A third is to have cold showers – my family have all got into Wim Hof so I’m giving it a try – it’s hell! And I also wanted to practise charcoal drawing, something I’ve avoided for years because I didn’t like the messiness. A friend gave me a lovely Khadi sketchbook for Xmas, the paper is heavy and rough and it really suits my Daler Rowney willow charcoal.

Husb and I took a drive to the Brecon Beacons on Saturday and stopped the car to look at the magnificent view and I made the last drawing in my book – number 30. The day was brilliantly sunny but also very cold and windy, so the sketch was quick and, well, sketchy. My shadow looms darkly in the bottom left of the scene.

Here’s a short video showing what it’s like drawing at the top of a mountain.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left.

In this one, I combined the image of the bird with snippets of text of things my Nana used to say. She used to take me to Swansea Museum a lot when I was small and I could hear her voice in the back of my head as I was sitting and drawing the birds and bugs.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.