Stacks And Giants

We spent a while on a wonderful beach of black sand covered with shiny dark, coin-shaped pebbles, fringed with towering silvery basalt columns, like the ones at the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. I couldn’t resist scribbling and despite the snow, sketched some of the basalt with one of the Reynisdrangur sea stacks in theContinue reading “Stacks And Giants”

Freezing Mitts And Yellow Grass

As we travelled around Iceland, Husb and I noticed that the grass that thinly covers the black lava landscape is an unusual yellowy-orange colour. I think it might be Leymus Arenarius (Lyme grass) but I’m not sure. Before I went, I prepared different drawing media, including a 20cm square sketchbook of handmade Khadi paper. IContinue reading “Freezing Mitts And Yellow Grass”

Frozen Trolls And Black Sand

  Now that I’ve had a bit of sleep, I’ve been looking through the drawings I did in Iceland. I prefer to draw when I’m travelling because the memories are more vivid than when I’ve just taken photos. Olaf  The Guide and Otto The Driver (on a sabbatical from Springfield, obviously) took us to aContinue reading “Frozen Trolls And Black Sand”

Volcanos, Glaciers and Freezing Fingers

  I’ve been to Iceland! That’s the country, not the shop! It was amazing. I took sketchbooks, paper and card with me and loads of different drawing materials because I wasn’t sure what would work in that climate – my fingers as it turned out. It was freezing – 3 days of torrential snow taughtContinue reading “Volcanos, Glaciers and Freezing Fingers”

A Work Of Sadness

  I don’t normally draw landscapes but I always take a sketchbook with me when I’m travelling. Here’s a sketch I made from the window of my bedroom at the hostel in Bisham, Pakistan. It was my first sight of the Karakoram mountain range – spectacular. More people should think about holidaying in Pakistan –Continue reading “A Work Of Sadness”

A Couple Of Quickies

  Husb and I had a grand day out today, with a roadtrip to Nottingham via Hay-on-Wye and Coventry. As we were sightseeing, I didn’t want to spend too much time sketching so I set myself time limits. Nottingham has an amazing geological rock formation that has been there for about 400,000 years. It’s calledContinue reading “A Couple Of Quickies”

Pies And Leftovers

So we’ve taken down our exhibition in Bath and arrived home, very tired but not much time to rest because next thing is hanging the ‘Leftovers II’ miniature print exhibition that’s come over from the USA, from Wingtip Press in Boise, Idaho. The show opens Tuesday evening at Swansea Print Workshop (7pm if you’re inContinue reading “Pies And Leftovers”

Rain, Reflections And RSI

I was ‘babysitting’ our ‘Commensalis‘ exhibition in Bath on Thursday, sitting opposite one of the old chapel windows and looking at my reflection against the torrential rain outside. During the quieter moments I sketched what I could see. It wasn’t easy because the layers that you see in a reflection are all squashed together. DoesContinue reading “Rain, Reflections And RSI”

Friday The 13th!

I’m up in Bath and it’s a lovely morning, sun shining and birds singing. Poured down yesterday when I was invigilating our exhibition, Commensalis at Walcot Chapel, but I guess that encouraged people to come into the dry. I did this drawing from the inside looking out. Drawing architecture is challenging because I don’t wantContinue reading “Friday The 13th!”

Art, A Mortuary and Beautiful Bath

Yesterday was incredibly busy and tiring; I’m part of a group of six artists from Swansea who travelled to the lovely city of Bath to put up and launch our exhibition, Commensalis. We started packing the car at 7.00 am and arrived back home just before midnight. PHEW! It’s on until Sunday evening and includesContinue reading “Art, A Mortuary and Beautiful Bath”