An Interesting Head.

The Person In The Bar.

Another little scribble from Friday night at the Elysium Gallery bar. Husb and I went to see some live music – Tom Emlyn and Sarah Passmore – it was good. I spotted this very interesting head in the audience. So I had to draw them didn’t I?

Raising Funds.

My family is raising money for Phil, a younger relative of mine, to have life-changing surgery in Spain. Phil is disabled by Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and the operation he needs isn’t currently available in the UK. I know times are hard, but if you’re able to spare a bob or two, please click here find out more or to donate a small amount to Phil’s crowdfunding campaign. Thank you xxx

Raising funds for Phil, bottom left, to have life-changing surgery xxx

Trying Out A Change.

I’m having a go at new templates for my website so I’ll be changing them a few times over the next couple of weeks to see how I get on with them. If there’s one you really like, or dislike, please let me know . Thanks x

Standing Stone Sunday 3.

Bryn Y Rhyd.

It’s #StandingStoneSunday on social media again and here’s a drawing/painting I did en plein air of the Bronze Age Bryn-y-Rhyd standing stone in Carmarthenshire near Llanedi. It was early on in my journeys across South Wales with pre-historian Dewi Bowen and filmmaker Melvyn Williams, about 5 or 6 years ago now. I was only supposed to be tagging along for the occasional scribble, but the stones drew me in. Dewi’s working on his new book, about the links between the South Wales standing stones and one of the tales in the Mabinogion.

I worked with charcoal and carbon onto vintage paper I’d prepared with my home made walnut ink.

Dewi Bowen and Melvyn Williams.

Raising Funds.

My family is raising money for Phil, a younger relative of mine, to have life-changing surgery in Spain. Phil is disabled by Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and the operation he needs isn’t currently available in the UK. I know times are hard, but if you’re able to spare a bob or two, please click here find out more or to donate a small amount to Phil’s crowdfunding campaign. Thank you xxx

Raising funds for Phil, bottom left, to have life-changing surgery xxx

Trying Out A Change.

I’m having a go at new templates for my website so I’ll be changing them a few times over the next couple of weeks to see how I get on with them. If there’s one you really like, or dislike, please let me know . Thanks x

Scribbling In The Bar.

Sitting And Sketching.

Husb and I went to see some musicians last night, Tom Emlyn and Sarah Passmore, in the Elysium Gallery Bar. Of course, I had to have a scribble. I used a ballpoint pen into an A5 leather-bound sketchbook.

Raising Funds.

My family is raising money for Phil, a younger relative of mine, to have life-changing surgery in Spain. Phil is disabled by Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and the operation he needs isn’t currently available in the UK. I know times are hard, but if you’re able to spare a bob or two, please click here find out more or to donate a small amount to Phil’s crowdfunding campaign. Thank you xxx

Raising funds for Phil, bottom left, to have life-changing surgery xxx

Trying Out A Change.

I’m having a go at new templates for my website so I’ll be changing them a few times over the next couple of weeks to see how I get on with them. If there’s one you really like, or dislike, please let me know . Thanks x

Playing With Drawings 1.

Thinking Of Gabrielle Munter.

I’ve been looking at some of my sketchbooks and having a digital play with some of the drawings. I don’t normally do that, I usually scribble and then leave them, but lately I’ve been thinking about working from them, lots of other artists do.

Trying Different Effects

Thinking Pop Art.

I take digital photos of all my sketches so I uploaded this one into Adobe Photoshop. I drew it early in the Covid19 pandemic lockdown, using charcoal into a Khadi handmade paper sketchbook, when I was walking through the park by Oystermouth Castle. I flicked it through different effects, which was fun, and I liked these two. The first reminds me of the work of the European Expressionist Gabrielle Munter and the second is a bit 1960s Pop Art.

Here’s the original. I don’t know if I’ll do anything more permanent with the image, but sometimes it’s nice just to play and get the imagination going a bit.

The Charcoal Original.

Raising Funds.

My family is raising money for Phil, a younger relative of mine, to have life-changing surgery in Spain. Phil is disabled by Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and the operation he needs isn’t currently available in the UK. I know times are hard, but if you’re able to spare a bob or two, please click here find out more or to donate a small amount to Phil’s crowdfunding campaign. Thank you xxx

Raising funds for Phil, bottom left, to have life-changing surgery xxx

Trying Out A Change

I’m having a go at new templates for my website so I’ll be changing them a few times over the next couple of weeks to see how I get on with them. If there’s one you really like, or dislike, please let me know . Thanks x

Colour Theory Mandala Finished.

A Wheel Of Colours.

I’ve finally finished the colour theory mandala I started a few weeks ago. I’ve only been working on it one afternoon a week but I’ve been totally absorbed in doing it, really getting into the zone. I constructed the design with a pair of compasses and a pencil – and someone reminding me of GCSE Geometry from all those years ago! I used Daler Rowney System 3 acrylic paint onto a stretched canvas and mixed almost all the colours from the Primaries – yellow, red and blue. I added some white for tints and grey for tones and finally worked up the detailed patterning – my favourite bit, with bronze paint and a fine brush. It’s been fun working on something completely theoretical.

The stages of construction.

Raising Funds.

My family is raising money for Phil, a younger relative of mine, to have life-changing surgery in Spain. Phil is disabled by Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and the operation he needs isn’t currently available in the UK. I know times are hard, but if you’re able to spare a bob or two, please click here find out more or to donate a small amount to Phil’s crowdfunding campaign. Thank you xxx

Raising funds for Phil, bottom left, to have life-changing surgery xxx

Trying Out A Change

I’m having a go at new templates for my website so I’ll be changing them a few times over the next couple of weeks to see how I get on with them. If there’s one you really like, or dislike, please let me know . Thanks x

Doing It Upside Down.

Painting The Portrait.

I did a bit more work on a portrait I’m painting, time to do the fine details in the head and get the likeness nailed. I learnt a while ago that it can help, when you’re using a reference photo, to paint upside down, so you can see the image as a group of shapes and colours.

Raising Funds.

My family is raising money for Phil, a younger relative of mine, to have life-changing surgery in Spain. Phil is disabled by Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and the operation he needs isn’t currently available in the UK. I know times are hard, but if you’re able to spare a bob or two, please click here find out more or to donate a small amount to Phil’s crowdfunding campaign. Thank you xxx

Raising funds for Phil, bottom left, to have life-changing surgery xxx

Trying Out A Change

I’m having a go at new templates for my website so I’ll be changing them a few times over the next couple of weeks to see how I get on with them. If there’s one you really like, or dislike, please let me know . Thanks x

Portrait Prelims

Quick sketches in ballpoint.

I’m working on a portrait painting and most of it is done. Now’s the really hard bit, getting a good likeness. I did an underpainting of the face and then some preliminary sketches to really study the face in detail, the proportions and angles. I drew these from a photo, the one of the right is the best likeness, I drew this upside down. The photo, not me 😀

Raising Funds.

My family is raising money for Phil, a younger relative of mine, to have life-changing surgery in Spain. Phil is disabled by Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and the operation he needs isn’t currently available in the UK. I know times are hard, but if you’re able to spare a bob or two, please click here find out more or to donate a small amount to Phil’s crowdfunding campaign. Thank you xxx

Raising funds for Phil, bottom left, to have life-changing surgery xxx

Trying Out A Change

I’m having a go at new templates for my website so I’ll be changing them a few times over the next couple of weeks to see how I get on with them. If there’s one you really like, or dislike, please let me know . Thanks x

#StandingStoneSunday 2

Merlin’s Quoits / Meini Llwydion.

Here’s one of my many sketches from my travels with pre-historian Dewi Bowen and filmmaker Melvyn Williams about 6 years ago. We tracked many of the Neolithic and Bronze Age standing stones across South Wales as Dewi was researching for his new book. This was the very first of our outings and we visited two stones called Meini Llwydion / Merlin’s Quoits, near Llangain in Carmarthenshire. I drew en plein air with compressed charcoal onto a textured vintage handmade paper. I wasn’t sure back then how to approach drawing these wonderful artefacts …. this is how I began ….

The short film (one minute) which was made as a trailer for a solo exhibition of the work shows some of the hair raising predicaments I got myself into as we travelled across Wales…..

You can see the texture of the paper under the charcoal.

Raising Funds.

My family is raising money for Phil, a younger relative of mine, to have life-changing surgery in Spain. Phil is disabled by Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and the operation he needs isn’t currently available in the UK. I know times are hard, but if you’re able to spare a bob or two, please click here find out more or to donate a small amount to Phil’s crowdfunding campaign. Thank you xxx

Raising funds for Phil, bottom left, to have life-changing surgery xxx

Trying Out A Change

I’m having a go at new templates for my website so I’ll be changing them a few times over the next couple of weeks to see how I get on with them. If there’s one you really like, or dislike, please let me know . Thanks x

#Caturday Archives

Computer Kitty.

It’s Saturday / #Caturday so here’s another from my kitty archives. I went through a phase of doing digital drawings on my Samsung Galaxy 8 tablet a few years back and the cats were good subjects for the programme – a free app called Markers which is great for sketching. Here’s Little Ming, our fluffy one-eyed rescue cat, who was much more ferocious than she looked.

Raising Funds.

My family is raising money for Phil, a younger relative of mine, to have life-changing surgery in Spain. Phil is disabled by Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and the operation he needs isn’t currently available in the UK. I know times are hard, but if you’re able to spare a bob or two, please click here find out more or to donate a small amount to Phil’s crowdfunding campaign. Thank you xxx

Raising funds for Phil, bottom left, to have life-changing surgery xxx

Trying Out A Change

I’m having a go at new templates for my website so I’ll be changing them a few times over the next couple of weeks to see how I get on with them. If there’s one you really like, or dislike, please let me know . Thanks x

Scribbling The Shadows.

Simple Shadow Sketch.

I was sitting in a sunny polytunnel in the GRAFT Garden, wondering what arty stuff to do and I saw a lovely plant – fennel I think – right by me. But I was feeling a bit lazy and wanted a short cut so I balanced my sketchbook onto the edge of the raised bed and pinned a couple of stems over the paper with my phone. Then I used a ballpoint pen to quickly sketch the shadows. I really enjoyed it, very relaxing way of doing a sketch.

Lazy lines …….

Raising Funds.

My family is raising money for Phil, a younger relative of mine, to have life-changing surgery in Spain. Phil is disabled by Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and the operation he needs isn’t currently available in the UK. I know times are hard, but if you’re able to spare a bob or two, please click here find out more or to donate a small amount to Phil’s crowdfunding campaign. Thank you xxx

Raising funds for Phil, bottom left, to have life-changing surgery xxx

Trying Out A Change

I’m having a go at new templates for my website so I’ll be changing them a few times over the next couple of weeks to see how I get on with them. If there’s one you really like, or dislike, please let me know . Thanks x