I Ate A Snail

Today I ate a snail for the first time. I won’t bother again. It tasted like earth in garlic butter with the texture of one of those rubbery sponges you put make-up on, if you wear make-up. Husb and I went to a posh French restaurant for his birthday meal. His birthday was in AugustContinue reading “I Ate A Snail”

Scribbling Sacred Stones

Here’s the fourth ancient burial site I drew over the weekend on my visit to ancestral graves in North Pembrokeshire. It’s a beautiful little chambered tomb called Carreg Samson, near Abercastle. The dolmen looks out across The Irish Sea from a farmer’s clifftop field in a glorious setting. It’s around 5,000 years old and is theContinue reading “Scribbling Sacred Stones”

The Three Tombs

Trekking around North Pembrokeshire yesterday, hunting ancient burial sites, took us to Goodwick near Fishguard (what are the fish guarding?) and a bit of a trek along the cliff path towards Strumble Head, through a housing estate and along an overgrown path between back gardens and a barbed wire fence keeping goats at bay toContinue reading “The Three Tombs”

Cats And Dogs

I started a new sketchbook earlier this week, a Peter Pauper Press book called ‘The Cat’s Meow Journal’. That’s Sparta Puss ‘helping’ me to photograph it. Not! The first scribbles are of the two little Patterdale Terriers belonging to Jane Simpson of Galerie Simpson in Swansea. I popped in a couple of days ago andContinue reading “Cats And Dogs”

The Carved Elephant – A Drypoint Etching

I have been doing some printmaking at The Bagpuss Window, the temporary artspace in Swansea’s High Street, making a little edition of miniature drypoints (similar to etchings). I set up a printing area around the little etching press, with an inking table, a blotting table and a drying table. I measured and ripped 8 piecesContinue reading “The Carved Elephant – A Drypoint Etching”

The Elephant In Lahore

I started working on a new tiny drypoint. During my residency in Pakistan last year, I did a fair bit of sketchbook drawings and I spotted this carved elephant in a restaurant in Lahore. I scribbled it and I’ve now redrawn it, with a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen, onto a small piece of drypointContinue reading “The Elephant In Lahore”

Bling, Seagull And Iconic Chair

Day 2 at The Bagpuss Window, the newest arty shenanigans in Swansea’s High Street. Fellow artist Melanie Ezra and I have opened a temporary pop-up artspace in an old shop due for demolition (thanks Coastal Housing group for the loan). The idea of The Bagpuss Window is that we, along with any other artists who dropContinue reading “Bling, Seagull And Iconic Chair”

Back To Basics

It’s been a very busy few weeks, personally and professionally and I haven’t been keeping up with my sketchbook drawings. I should be doing a scribble each day but I’ve lapsed. So today I went back to basics. Husb and I went to a family birthday, our little great-niece is three and we celebrated atContinue reading “Back To Basics”

Badge-eater

I ran a short course in using a pasta maker as a printing press at Swansea Print Workshop today. We used paper drypoint plates to make miniature prints. I very quickly re-sketched a drawing of a badger from my sketchbook and cut it into the plate with a drypoint tool. The nose is a bitContinue reading “Badge-eater”

Pasta Print Perfect!

The tabletop pasta maker had it’s first trial as a mobile printing press today. RESULT!!!!! It worked beautifully. It’s taken ages to renovate because we had stored it in a really damp cupboard and it was badly rusted, but WD40, patience and elbow grease did the job. Here’s how I recycled it…………….   First, IContinue reading “Pasta Print Perfect!”