Sometimes Less Is More

  One of the hardest things in creating a work of art is knowing when to stop. It’s too easy to keep on going and overwork something which then loses its spontaneity and liveliness. I find it useful to do formal drawing exercises to try and overcome this; things like speed sketching, drawing with aContinue reading “Sometimes Less Is More”

The Alien in My Right Foot

Today I saw the chiropodist about the verrucae in my right foot and was transfixed for half an hour by his scientific lecture on the phenomenon of veruccae and viral infections. Turned out he did his dissertation on verrucae, luckily for me. I’ve had two on my right foot for some weeks now and myContinue reading “The Alien in My Right Foot”

Enter Rocky The Dragon and The Suicide Method.

  This is a very geeky blog today. I was chatting to some printmakers on LinkedIn earlier about the ‘suicide’ method of block printing [we love talking technique], where you produce a multi-coloured print using the same block, by progressively cutting away each colour. You end up totally destroying the block, so there’s little roomContinue reading “Enter Rocky The Dragon and The Suicide Method.”

A Watercolour Gorefest!

    I don’t usually paint, preferring pen and ink, charcoal and chalk. Now and again I bring out the watercolours in life drawing sessions and have a bash. The received wisdom is that watercolour is a gentle, refined medium where you build up layers of pale delicate glazes. Some of the artists in theContinue reading “A Watercolour Gorefest!”

The Elder in Art. Having a Rant!

We live in a society that does not, in my opinion, value our elders. They are marginalised from mass media; stereotyped when they do appear; and shuffled off into ‘care’ homes when they become too inconvenient. Our civilisation has an unhealthy obsession with youth to the extent that barely middle aged people have their facesContinue reading “The Elder in Art. Having a Rant!”

Apple Pulp Cake and Eggbound to Gilgit

It’s been a great year for apples and apart from the glut on our own tiny trees, people have been generous and given us loads, mostly cooking apples. I’ve been trying to find different uses and recipes for them and yesterday Melvyn juiced half a carrier bag full and made us some sensational fresh appleContinue reading “Apple Pulp Cake and Eggbound to Gilgit”

Busy Day Making A Monotype [nude image: Parental Guidance]

I spent the whole day at Swansea Print Workshop, making a new large full colour monotype. Here it is. It started life as a sketchbook drawing done during the weekly life drawing group at the Workshop. I redrew it, scaled up onto a much larger sheet of paper in conté, charcoal and white pastel. IContinue reading “Busy Day Making A Monotype [nude image: Parental Guidance]”

Small Boy, Big Icecream, A Bee and A Flower

  Today I babysat for my six-year old nephew and as we’re having a glorious Indian summer I took him out, around the local museums and galleries and then to an ice cream parlour for a rest and something to cool down with. He loves mint choc chip so he had a huge cornet, almostContinue reading “Small Boy, Big Icecream, A Bee and A Flower”

Spying and Sketching: People Watching.

  I sometimes go for a cup of tea to the café in Waterstones bookshop which is in a beautiful old cinema. The café is on the first floor and I sit in the large bow window overlooking the street below which has some lovely Indian Bean trees and benches and I sketch people. It’sContinue reading “Spying and Sketching: People Watching.”

Artgeek stuff – Continuous Line and Direct Monotypes [nude image – PG]

  I’m a frenetic scribbler, always sketching and I have thousands of drawings done over the years. It’s fun to go through old sketchbooks and see what I can do with the images. The drawing style I use most is the ‘continuous line’ method, where I keep the pen on the paper without taking aContinue reading “Artgeek stuff – Continuous Line and Direct Monotypes [nude image – PG]”