Beginning The Process.

I’m starting to develop a new linocut a part of a new group project by Swansea Print Workshop (more to come on this). The subject I have chosen is the South Wales Miners’ Wives during the strike in the 1980s. I knew one of the wives, she was featured in the film Pride, those women were so brave, I admired them so much at the time (still do) and I’ve wanted to do some art about their heroic struggle for a long time.

I started by Googling Miners Wives UK images and selected about a dozen that I thought had an interesting composition. These are for practice, to get familiar with the subject and to start the process of observation. One thing that strikes me about this one is how much bigger than the women the police are. I know men are generally bigger, but this image really brings it home to me. The women are little dwts. This is sketched in graphite into a Khadi sketchbook.