The Cheeky Cockchafer

  Another of the small silkscreen prints I did recently. I started off by redrawing a little sketch of a snipe, but this time I did it onto cellophane with black acrylic paint. That formed a transparency for transferring to a photoscreen. I wanted to incorporate bits of rubbish to reflect the environment that muchContinue reading “The Cheeky Cockchafer”

Things My Nana Used To Say…

  Here’s another of the small silkscreen prints I did recently. It’s a combination of several images – a heron, a cockchafer (melonontha melonontha) and a violet ground beetle (carabus violaceus) – that I had drawn from Swansea Museum’s archive collection, and they’re overlaid onto a piece of text. I was working with a groupContinue reading “Things My Nana Used To Say…”

That Beetle Is Toast!

Here’s a little screeprint I did at the weekend. The characters are a snipe and a beetle, printed onto a Fabriano paper with a fragment of chine colle. I think that beetle’s days are numbered!

Birds And Bugs, Rubbish And Rugby

I’ve just finished an exhausting three days working with Edinburgh-based Australian artist Kelly Stewart to develop a boxed set of small screenprints based on drawings we did from the Swansea Museum archives – taxidermy birds and invertebrates. I also included some imagery based on rubbish – the sort that ends up in our rivers andContinue reading “Birds And Bugs, Rubbish And Rugby”

Birds And Bugs

  I spent yesterday drawing at Swansea Museum with a group of artists led by Edinburgh-based artist Kelly Stewart. It was arranged by Swansea Print Workshop who worked with staff from the Museum stores to select antique taxidermy specimens from their collection – a range of birds and bugs. I drew herons, a hawk, cockchafersContinue reading “Birds And Bugs”

Dog At The Demo

I was dog-sitting last Friday and went down to the Climate Change strike to do some sketches en plein air. I like drawing crowds, it’s a good exercise. The dog had different ideas though.   She’s only a year old and still very excitable and because she’s so cute she was getting loads of attention.Continue reading “Dog At The Demo”

The Grey Mare

  Here’s another view of the horse skull I drew yesterday evening at the little Zoology Museum at Swansea University’s Wallace Building. The Mari Lwyd (Grey Mare) tradition in South Wales centres around a horse skull, which is made into a lifesize puppet and decorated with flowers, bells and ribbons. It’s paraded around on theContinue reading “The Grey Mare”

Drawing A Horse’s Head

I spent a great hour or so down at the Zoology Museum in The Wallace Building on the Swansea University Singleton campus this evening. A drawing group meets there twice a month to make the most of the specimens tucked away. I fancied studying a horse’s skull, to tie in with my previous work withContinue reading “Drawing A Horse’s Head”

Scribbling Chooks

  I drew some chickens this morning. Husb and I were collecting farmyard manure from a smallholding where there are a lot of beloved animals including these chubby chooks, cats, dogs, a pig and a llama.  I used the continuous line drawing technique because the chickens were quite lively; it was early this morning andContinue reading “Scribbling Chooks”

Tydfil The Martyr

  Husb and I went to the Annibyniaeth march in Merthyr Tydfil today, it was great. There were 5,300 people marching for independence and 53 dogs. Of course I had to have a scribble – of the people and the dogs. The people stayed still for longer!     Tydfil was a daughter of King BrychanContinue reading “Tydfil The Martyr”