Category Archives: Arty Stuff

Drawing Dancing in the Dark

  Last night I went to an AMAZING drawing and dance performance at the Volcano Theatre premises in Swansea, by Marega Palser and three other dancers. I’m not normally a huge fan of dance, but this combination of extreme movement, creative soundtrack and spontaneous drawing was fantastic. Marega also had an exhibition of her drawingsContinue reading “Drawing Dancing in the Dark”

A Recycled Lady!

  I often use discarded prints as the basis for drawing – I raid the waste paper bin at Swansea Print Workshop for prints that other artists have thrown away as they’re usually on really good paper, a Somerset or Bockinford, and often embossed and coloured which makes an interesting starting point for a drawing,Continue reading “A Recycled Lady!”

End Of An Era!

Last night was the opening of the final exhibition I’ve curated at The Brunswick – I’ve been doing it for three and a half years.  For anyone who hasn’t been, it’s a great ‘real ale’ pub in Swansea run by a couple who are keen on art and about 7 years ago they agreed toContinue reading “End Of An Era!”

Scribbler’s Block!! Where’s my creative juices gone?

  It happens to us all – Scribbler’s Block, Writer’s Block, do musicians get blockages? I’m sure they do. What do you do when you’re struggling away in the studio and the creative juices have dried up? You’ve already got three or four pieces of work on the go and everything you try to doContinue reading “Scribbler’s Block!! Where’s my creative juices gone?”

I Don’t Often Paint But….

I don’t often paint as I have a printmaker’s brain which I think is wired differently to the painter’s brain. I prefer to draw and I get frustrated by dragging a bit of paint across a surface with a brush. This piece started as a small sketchbook lifedrawing which I then worked up into aContinue reading “I Don’t Often Paint But….”

A New Model! A New Muse!

  I’m a gingery Celt living in a predominately gingery Celtic part of the country so it’s an absolute joy to have a new model from Africa working with our life drawing group.  Swansea has had a fair bit of immigration in the past, as it was a thriving port and is a thousand yearsContinue reading “A New Model! A New Muse!”

A Friend, A Kitten And A Lot of Old Prints.

  I was working with an artist friend, we were exchanging modelling hours and I built up a large collection of life drawings of her and started wondering what to do with them, whether they could form the basis of new pieces of work. I also had some large sheets of very good paper thatContinue reading “A Friend, A Kitten And A Lot of Old Prints.”

Etching with Hogarth!

  I like to draw from life and always carry a small sketchbook. I’m enormously inspired by the work of William Hogarth, who catalogued daily life in the 1700s with his meticulous metal engravings. This is a drypoint from a paper plate based on a sketch I did in a tiny Cotman sketchbook. It’s theContinue reading “Etching with Hogarth!”

Life Drawing: May and September [parental guidance]

One week at life drawing group, an administrative error meant that we had our older male model AND our younger female model for the whole session. I’m used to working with just one model at a time so it was quite a challenge to draw the two together, getting them in proportion in relation toContinue reading “Life Drawing: May and September [parental guidance]”