Category Archives: out and about

The Final Cwtch

Another unseasonable warm and bright day, but glorious weather to say goodbye to artist Ann Jordan’s ‘Cwtch’, a giant woollen blanket and environmental installation. You can read more about this extraordinary piece here. It is in it’s final resting place, a circle of eroded peat bog up on the Black Mountain in the Brecon BeaconsContinue reading “The Final Cwtch”

Plumb Tuckered

It’s been a long hard day of arty shenanigans. I started early this morning playing a ranting judge in a short film being made by friends. Then onto a second day of drawing in public at the Creative Bubble artspace in the city centre – I do this for a couple of days a monthContinue reading “Plumb Tuckered”

Up The Mountains

Today I dropped off some new work to the wonderful Workers Gallery in Ynyshir in the Rhondda Valley. Husb and I drove up over Aberdare and Maerdy and stopped to take some photos of the rugged scenery in the late Autumn light. Wonderful place.   The new exhibition, ‘Of Site And Song’ opens on NovemberContinue reading “Up The Mountains”

The Blue Stones

I’ve been thinking about how to develop the drawings I did last weekend in North Pembrokeshire. I have seven drawings from four different Neolithic sites and I thought that one or two of them might look good as cyanotypes. Cyanotype is an archaic form of photography invented in early Victorian times by Sir John HerschelContinue reading “The Blue Stones”

The Last Of The Stones

Here are the last couple of drawings from my weekend sketching ancient burial chambers in North Pembrokeshire. This one at Pentre Ifan is drawn in charcoal, carbon and white conte crayon onto Fabriano Accademica that I had marbled with black oil paint mixed with turpentine.       Here’s the dolmen drawn over a previousContinue reading “The Last Of The Stones”

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”

Experiments At Pentre Ifan

I spend a couple of days in Pembrokeshire drawing dolmens. I managed to get to 4 sites and did some sketching in the field, not easy as I forgot to take my drawing board so I was drawing on grass or even the stones themselves. I tried out some different techniques. These first two drawingsContinue reading “Experiments At Pentre Ifan”

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”