Inspired By The Punjab

I carried on with stages 2 (red) and 3 (blue) of my new monotypes while I was doing the final day of my pop-up studio event at Swansea Print Workshop. Yesterday I posted stage 1 (yellow) for both the first pressing and the second – ghost – pressing. You can see the full set inContinue reading “Inspired By The Punjab”

Stage One And A Ghost

It’s been a busy couple of days with the pop up studio at Swansea Print Workshop, a lot of visitors coming in the see our work and talk to Hannah and myself about our residency at the Zaira Zaka print studio in Pakistan last year. It’s been lovely to meet so many people interested inContinue reading “Stage One And A Ghost”

To Paint Or Not To Paint?

That’s the question, isn’t it? Some printmakers think it’s acceptable to hand-colour etchings and some don’t. I do. This is a little drypoint I did a few weeks ago at The Bagpuss Window based on a drawing I scribbled when I was in Pakistan last year. I’ve added colour with Winsor & Newton half panContinue reading “To Paint Or Not To Paint?”

You Learn Something New…..

These holes at the Taxila UNESCO World Heritage site in Pakistan had been puzzling me for some time. I found out this evening what they are ….. probably. Hannah Lawson and I opened our pop-up studio at Swansea Print Workshop this evening with a Welsh / Pakistani tea and we did an illustrated talk aboutContinue reading “You Learn Something New…..”

Tea And A Pop Up

Back in April 2014 I travelled to Pakistan with another Swansea Printmaker to do a residency at the Zaira Zaka Print Studio near Rawalpindi. It was an amazing, exhausting and inspiring experience! My fellow printmaker, Hannah Lawson and I are bringing our experiences back home in a four-day pop-up studio at Swansea Print Workshop, fromContinue reading “Tea And A Pop Up”

The Blue Stones

I’ve been thinking about how to develop the drawings I did last weekend in North Pembrokeshire. I have seven drawings from four different Neolithic sites and I thought that one or two of them might look good as cyanotypes. Cyanotype is an archaic form of photography invented in early Victorian times by Sir John HerschelContinue reading “The Blue Stones”

The Last Of The Stones

Here are the last couple of drawings from my weekend sketching ancient burial chambers in North Pembrokeshire. This one at Pentre Ifan is drawn in charcoal, carbon and white conte crayon onto Fabriano Accademica that I had marbled with black oil paint mixed with turpentine.       Here’s the dolmen drawn over a previousContinue reading “The Last Of The Stones”

Scribbling Sacred Stones

Here’s the fourth ancient burial site I drew over the weekend on my visit to ancestral graves in North Pembrokeshire. It’s a beautiful little chambered tomb called Carreg Samson, near Abercastle. The dolmen looks out across The Irish Sea from a farmer’s clifftop field in a glorious setting. It’s around 5,000 years old and is theContinue reading “Scribbling Sacred Stones”