I finally stopped working on Michael Sheen lunchtime today – I’ve been stitching him up for a week and a half. In my spare time mind, not 24/7. He’s nestled with all the other Michael Sheens down at GS Artists on Swansea’s High Street right now, waiting for the big exhibition opening this Saturday at 4pm.
Still at it, stitching my portrait of Michael Sheen. Getting there but not got there yet. I must hand it in by lunchtime tomorrow. It’s going everywhere with me at the moment, to the pub, to the art gallery. I’m sitting and stitching like the knitters in front of the guillotine back in the French Revolution.
Yeah you guessed it …. I’m still stitching that portrait of Michael Sheen. He has a mouth now and the beginnings of eyebrows and his face is nearly finished. I think I can get his hair done this evening. I have about 36 hours to finish it.
Still working on Michael Sheen. I’ve nearly finished stitching his face so I had a bit of a change and switched to working on a few curls. His hair is quite salt and pepper in the reference photo, which gives very good definition to the curly bits. I’m making this for the 9 to 90 creative festival in Swansea, …..coming up soon
Doing it slow ….. very slow ….. will I finish this by the deadline?
I’ve been doing what I’ve been doing for decades, just getting on with it, doing my art, mostly sketchbooks from reality, life drawing and printmaking, while working with marginalised people – the homeless and the drug and alcohol dependent. As far as I was concerned, these were not two different things, but are inter-dependent. When people asked what I did, it took ages to explain. Now, apparently, I’m a socially engaged artist. So there we are.
It isn’t just about how I integrate living as an artist with working with people at the edge of society – it also informs the artwork I do. For example, I made this monotype (above) from my first visit to Pakistan over a decade ago now. It was a relatively peaceful period and we were visiting the Khyber Pass and I was inspired by Afghan refugees travelling back to their homes.
In my sketchbooks, I draw from real life, both the ordinary that’s around me every day and the special events like demonstrations and meetings. Here’s a drawing I did on the march to commemorate Greenham Common back last year.
Sometimes my work is directly political, like “Here Be Dragons” that was commissioned last year by Sky Arts TV channel.
And the flag of Gwenllian ferch Gruffydd designed for the AUOB Cymru marches.
Recently, I’ve become an artist-in-residence and researcher in the FIRE Laboratory in Swansea University’s Department of Bioscience, working at the interface between art and environmental science.
Or I just draw people getting on with their lives on the streets of Swansea….
So when people ask what I do, now I say “I’m a socially engaged artist” and they go “So what’s that when it’s at home then?”
And it takes ages to explain …..
Just a quick sketch that I did at GS Artists a few days ago, scribbling people in the audience. These little drawings underpin my artistic practice, I have thousands of them, tucked away in cupboards all over the house.
Here are some more heads I drew on Saturday at GS Artists. I started with a speed sketch using the blind contour technique, where I kept the pen on the paper and didn’t look at it at all as I drew, keeping my gaze on the person. It’s a good warm-up exercise. Then I moved onto a continuous line drawing.
Here are some heads from my sketchbook. I like to keep sketching, it underpins my artistic practice, so wherever I am, out and about, I like to have a scribble and I like to scribble heads because I love drawing expressions of people who have no idea that I’m visually stalking them!!!!! I did these at GS Artists yesterday, at the launch of the latest exhibition, There Is A Politics Of Space As Space Is Politics….
I went to GS Artists on Swansea’s High Street this afternoon for the launch of their new exhibition and a panel talk and a tasty vegan lunch. Of course, I had to have a scribble. I was sitting next to fellow scribbler Patti McKenna-Jones and she was having a scribble too. The panel included artists Gavin Turk, Debbie Rees, Jane Simpson and Owen Griffiths and there was a lively and at times controversial discussion from the floor.
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