Got home late from life drawing last night, too tired to blog and today I’ve been framing and mounting prints all day for next week’s printmaking exhibition at Oriel Canfas in Cardiff. Then this evening Husb and I went to the opening of this year’s MA show at Ty Bryn Glas – excellent. I thinkContinue reading “A New Male Nude [parental guidance]”
Category Archives: Arty Stuff
Discipline And Plotting
I’m an expressionist scribbler, preferring to draw freehand as much as possible. But now and again it’s good to get some discipline into my work to refine my technique. Here’s a plotted drawing I did a while back, using a very simple rough grid to plot the main points of the body and relate themContinue reading “Discipline And Plotting”
Colour, Vibration, Reality
I’ve been re-reading one of my favourite art books, Victoria Finlay’s ‘Colour: Travels Through The Paintbox‘. Most of my books on colour are dry and rather academic but this is a rare book – well researched, informative, intelligent AND beautifully written. She’s a social anthropologist turned journalist with a passion for art and that passionContinue reading “Colour, Vibration, Reality”
I Don’t Do Nature
I draw people and occasionally, at a push, animals but I don’t do nature. I’ve just finished Martin Gayford’s book about his conversationas with David Hockney and he discusses his new-ish paintings from the countryside surrounding his home in the north of England, so I thought I should break out of my comfort zone andContinue reading “I Don’t Do Nature”
A Lovely Line [female nude]
I had a nice life drawing in my sketchbook and decided to take it a stage further into a fully worked-up drawing and then, eventually, into a full-colour reduction monotype. I stretched a sheet of Bockingford 250gsm and gave it a couple of coats of rabbit skin glue, then washes of acrylic paint in yellowContinue reading “A Lovely Line [female nude]”
Man In A Black Square
Some time ago I took some digital photos from my second floor studio window, looking down on the people walking past below. I worked them up into drawings and I’ve been gradually cutting them into blocks for printing. I’m planning to do a series of nine block prints, all square and the same size, withContinue reading “Man In A Black Square”
Chalk Nude [parental guidance]
I spend a lot of time doing life drawing and studying anatomy because my practice is figurative and representational, although I take some liberties: I like Egon Schiele, Toulouse-Lautrec, van Gogh and the German Expressionists so taking liberties comes naturally. But now and again I take a BIG liberty and head towards the abstract. ItContinue reading “Chalk Nude [parental guidance]”
A Highly Coloured Man [parental guidance]
Just got back from life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop – went a bit mad with the oil pastels tonight and had a good scribble all over the sketchbook pages before I started drawing the figure. I’ve been doing it a lot recently to break up the intimidating neatness of the plain page. Blank pagesContinue reading “A Highly Coloured Man [parental guidance]”
Dystopian Man
I haven’t done much sketchbook work for a couple of weeks because I’m working flat out on a painting – sort of. I’m not a painter but I’m entering an international painting competition and I decided I’d push the definition of painting a bit and approach it as a scribbler and printmaker. The theme, broadly,Continue reading “Dystopian Man”
Drawn To Print
Just got back from an excellent talk by the new artist-in-residence at Swansea Print Workshop as part of the year-long ‘Drawn To Print’ project. Her name is Ros Ford and she’s primarily an etcher, working on huge copperplate etchings of urban industrial landscapes. I did a quick scribble during her talk, which doesn’t do herContinue reading “Drawn To Print”