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Violent When Brushed

10 Jul

 

I did a quick scribble this evening into my tiny A7 size sketchbook with a biro (ballpoint) pen. It’s been a busy day; I went to Cardiff on the bus for two meetings with fellow artists, planning arty collaborations, and then I got travel sick on the way home. Not nice. So I’ve only just felt like having a scribble. Here she is, the scruffiest of cats, Ming The Merciless showing her best side. She’s brushed every night, despite being seriously violent, but she is always a total scruff. Bit like me really. Although I’m not violent when I’m brushed. Well, not often.

 

For a limited period I am putting a new drawing from my recent sketch books on my Artfinder gallery every day.  If you’d like to check them out, please click on the image below or the Artfinder link at the top right of this page.

 

 

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Little Hairy Poser

28 Jun

 

Just time for a quick scribble in my sketchbook this evening. This is Ming the Merciless, our little hairy cat. She’s sixteen now and sleeps even more than cats normally do, which makes sketching much easier. Mind you, I’ve never met a cat yet that didn’t like to be drawn, they’re such a bunch of posers.

 

 

For a limited period I am putting a new drawing of an ancient monument on my Artfinder gallery every day.  If you’d like to check them out, please click on the image below or the Artfinder link at the top right of this page.

 

 

 

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The Scruffy Little Model

9 Apr

Scruffy cat

It was a really nice day today, not too warm, dry and perfect to get down to the allotment to make an early start on the Spring clearance and planting. The same thing happens every year, I say I’ll break myself in and do an hour at a time and work my way up but no, I did four and a half hours of digging, weeding, planting and hedge trimming straight off. And then got home and crashed on the settee. And didn’t do any art. So I grabbed my sketchbook and scribbled Little Ming who is asleep on the pouffé. She’s getting on a bit, she’s sixteen now but she’s always been a scruffy little thing.

Oystermouth Castle 2

As we walked across the park by the Castle to the allotment site, I noticed a swathe of bright yellow celandine and gleaming white wild garlic (Ramsons) tumbling down the grassy bank. I love the Spring.

 

I have put my series of drawings en plein air of ancient Welsh monuments on Artfinder.  If you want to see more, please click on the image below or the Artfinder link at the top right of this page. This one is the legendary grave of Saint Elfys (Elvis) in Pembrokeshire, not for from the Presceli Mountains. Elfys? Presceli? Elvis Presley? Coincidence? hhhmmmm

St Elvis

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Couldn’t Help Myself!

11 Feb

sketchbooks

I hate shopping – unless I’m buying art materials or books. I spotted these two gorgeous little sketchbooks by Paper Blanks on the ‘For Sale’shelf – I couldn’t help myself!

sparta

Every Saturday is #Caturday so I started the littlest sketchbook with a couple of quick scribbles of Sparta Puss. She wouldn’t keep still, so she looks a bit wonky.

 

 

I am putting my series of drawings of ancient Welsh monuments on Artfinder.  If you want to see more, please click on the image below or the Artfinder link at the top right of this page.

St Elvis

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Have A Cool Yule

24 Dec

sparta-snowflake

It’s that time of year. Season’s greetings and all that. Here’s what Sparta Puss thinks of it. Drawn by Husb with snowflakes added by me. She looks happy, doesn’t she? The midwinter festival has been around in these parts since well before Christianity, originally known as Alban Arthan (the Light of Winter) to the Celts and Yule to the Nordic and Germanic peoples. So have a Cool Yule, Alban Arthan Dda, Nadolig Llawen, Merry Christmas one and all.

 

I am putting my series of drawings of ancient Welsh monuments on Artfinder.  If you want to buy one, you can see them by clicking on the image below or the Artfinder link at the top right of this page.

St Elvis

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Big Ginge

22 Dec

big-ginge-1

Husb and I were surrounded by cats during our recent holiday in Northern Cyprus. There were three small separate well-fed colonies of kitties living on our hotel site, being doted on by staff and tourists. I thought I might draw them but to be honest, I wanted a bit of a break from drawing while I was away and they were a pretty manic bunch that didn’t stay still much so I took lots of photos to work from. I don’t generally use photographs but it gives me a chance to work to a much higher level of detail than normal. I’ve drawn the first, Big Ginge (of course we gave them names) onto a sheet of gummed St. Cuthbert watercolour paper with a B pencil. Once I’ve filled the sheet with cat drawings (it should take about 5), I’ll start to paint them in with watercolour.

I am putting my series of drawings of ancient Welsh monuments on Artfinder.  If you want to buy one, you can see them by clicking on the image below or the Artfinder link at the top right of this page.

St Elvis

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Little Fluffy Psychopath

21 Nov

04-cat-on-a-rucksack

Ming The Merciless is elderly now, sixteen years old, one-eyed and has arthritis in her paws so she can’t scratch her claws anymore and they need to be clipped. Problem is, she’s a complete psycho! There’s no way we can do it so for the past couple of years she’s been going to the vets every few months to have them clipped by professionals. But they’re terrified of her so she’s been having a general anaesthetic each time. They’ve now decided that she’s too old and frail to have a general if it’s for a non-life threatening condition. So today we tried something new. We slipped her a Mickey Finn in some food and Husb took her to the vet an hour later when she was well woozy and could barely stand up. Even in that state she was incredibly violent and took out two vets. They managed to do her back paws and one front paw but had to give up! When she came home, she had the munchies and scoffed a ton of food, then crashed out. I don’t know what was in the tablet they gave her.

I have work featured in two exhibitions at the moment – in The Workers Gallery in The Rhondda Valley and at Llanover Hall in Cardiff, both lovely venues and worth a look-in if you’re in the area.

 

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Lending A Paw

20 Nov

Sometimes, when I’m scribbling away, I have a little furry helper. Quite often in fact. Her name is Sparta Puss. I am her trained monkey.

lending-a-paw

 

I have work featured in two exhibitions at the moment – in The Workers Gallery in The Rhondda Valley and at Llanover Hall in Cardiff, both lovely venues and worth a look-in if you’re in the area.

 

 

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Creative Learning

10 Oct

llanrhydian-school-demo

I had a great day, working with a group of fellow artists to deliver demonstrations to primary school teachers in a lovely school on the Gower Peninsula. I showed a selection of printmaking techniques suitable for younger children including two kinds of monotype – direct line and reductive, blind embossing and colour printing with collagraph plates, and a quick bit of block printing. It was a whistle stop tour to hopefully whet their appetite for further training. This is part of the Welsh Government’s Creative Learning initiative to expand the creative education received by children in schools in Wales over 5 years.

I did some of the printing in the demonstration with my little pastamaker press – here’s a video (with my cat) showing how to convert a tabletop pasta machine into a serviceable miniature printing press.

 

 

 

There’s more of my art to be seen in my online Gallery in Artfinder, please click on the image below to take a look. Thank you.

Quoit

 

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It’s #Caturday!

10 Sep

Caturday, an Internet phenomenon. Like cats. I read a theory a while ago about why the Internet has been taken over by cats. It reckoned that dog owners have always had a chance to meet other doggy types because they walk their dogs and take them to training schools and there are dog clubs and networks in the real world. Well, as anyone who shares their lives with cats knows, walking and training the cat is just laughable. Okay, there are a few people who persevere and manage to do both, but you still don’t generally bump into people walking their cats, because the streets are full of people walking their dogs and that usually doesn’t go down too well with cats.

So when the Internet came along, we cat people could come out of our real-world isolation and share cat pictures, stories, cute kitty merchandise and the Internet phenomenon was born. And continues unabated.

Here’s mine.

"Get Off Those Curtains #1"

“Get Off Those Curtains #1”

Sparta. A woodcut. You can get this on Artfinder if you like.

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