What’s In A Name? Ghosts Of The Past.

What’s in a name? That’s the beginning of a quote by William Shakespeare. It’s a question I’ve thought a lot about in recent weeks as I’ve been working on a community arts project in the Waun Wen area of the city. It’s an area that’s gone through a lot of changes over the past 3 centuries and at the moment it’s a 21st century cityscape, with Victorian terraces scrambling up the hills, punctuated by modern social housing estates and areas of unspoilt greenery, bisected by a large busy dual carriageway.

Buried beneath is an Industrial Revolution townscape, poisoned ground – the remains of metal works and spoil tips – a quarry and many culverted and diverted underground waterways.

And under that, a pre-industrial bucolic landscape of rolling hills, streams and brooks, meadows and mills. Very little of that remains, except in the place names, which echo as ghosts of the past in people’s everyday speech. I’ve found that many of the local residents hadn’t realised that these reflect the area’s buried history. The names are in the image above, they’re beautiful in both languages. Some are very specific, for instance “Caepistyll – The Field with a Spouted Waterfall”, but I’m not sure what exactly a spouted waterfall is. I was told it’s a waterfall that seems to flow upwards in certain conditions, but that sounds odd to me. Any geographers out there?

As I walk around following these place names, I imagine what it must have looked like before the brutality of the Industrial Revolution and 20th century urban sprawl.

Walk Waun Wen, Talk Waun Wen is part of the Home and Hinterland art project in partnership with Swansea University’s Taliesin Arts Centre.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the antique taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these vintage artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.

The Tech Genius And Art In The Wet

I’ve just changed the home page of my website for the next couple of months to show what I’m doing with the Home and Hinterland community arts project in Waun Wen, which is funded by Swansea University’s Taliesin Arts Centre. I’ve done more than 30 blog posts about it so far, and my tech genius (Husb) has pulled it all together in one place – I was surprised how much is there already and there’s another two months (nearly) to go, where I’ll be doing loads more arty stuff. If the Covid stays away. And the rain. Never mind, I can do art in the wet 😀

So please click on the big SCRIBBLAH at the top to check it out and when you’re there, click on the first picture and you’ll be able to see all the little drawing blog posts. I’m loving being there, it’s a gorgeous area, the people are lovely and the views are lush.

This work is part of the Home and Hinterland project funded by Swansea University’s Taliesin Arts Centre.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the antique taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these vintage artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.

Buried Water

I’ve been walking through the Waun Wen area of the city this afternoon, sketching and also taking rubbings in graphite onto paper of the “street metal”. It sounds like a type of heavy rock music, but it’s the metal bits that we generally don’t notice under our feet. Things like manhole, stopcock and drain covers which are portals to the water buried beneath.

Some of the street metal is old and when you follow it around, you get to see the history of an area underfoot. This little stopcock cover is very common, there’s no company name on it. Almost every house has one.

Sometimes though, what’s buried becomes visible again. On the boundary of the area, there’s a sink hole at the bottom the the Cwmfelin estate, which used to be the Cwmfelin Tin Works. It’s been fenced off because it’s dangerous but when you look in, there’s a strong flow of water rushing past some old-looking brickwork. Could this be the River Burlais on it’s way to join the River Tawe?

This work is part of the Home and Hinterland project funded by Swansea University’s Taliesin Arts Centre.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the antique taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these vintage artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.

Silhouette

This is the second of a series of sketches I’m doing from photos I took of the war memorial in Kendal in the Lake District a few months ago. It was a bright day so the statue was silhouetted against the sky, wiping out any details on the statue. I’m using a ballpoint pen into an A6 hardbound sketchbook and making a lot of use of cross hatching.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the antique taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these vintage artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.

Foreshortening And Mark Making

I saw a bronze sculpture of a World War 1 soldier on a memorial in Kendal in the Lake District. He was on a tall plinth and towered above me at an interesting angle, so I took a few photos from different sides and then completely forgot about them until I was browsing today and thought, “Ah! I was going to do some sketches from these. Good foreshortening”. So I had a scribble, I’ll do a few more. It’s good practice to draw from a different viewpoint and to scribble lots of marks too.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the antique taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these vintage artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.

Nature’s Opportunists

They get everywhere, seagulls. Here they are hanging out on chimneys in the Waun Wen area of the city. There are no gulls officially called seagulls, and the ones that gang up on people around the city are usually herring gulls. These ones weren’t doing much, but come bin collection day, they’ll be ripping open bin bags and scattering rubbish everywhere. They’re one of nature’s opportunists.

The sketch has been done as part of the Home and Hinterland arts project sponsored by Swansea University’s Taliesin Arts Centre.

scourge the seagull

Here’s one I drew a few years back, it’s stuffed, part of Swansea Museum’s Taxidermy collection. It was much easier to draw – it didn’t move!

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the antique taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these vintage artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.

Overhung….

Walking and drawing around the Waun Wen area which is built on two steep hills, on either side of a major dual carriageway. The road was much narrower in the past, but traffic planners in the late 20th century decided to widen it, to 5 lanes in places, and cut one half of the community from the other, destroying a lot of homes and shops in the process. Anyway, this little slice of landscape I’ve sketched is on the upper hill, above the dual carriageway, where some of the tiny Victorian houses cling to a very steep slope overhung by masses of mature trees towering above them. It’s a dramatic scene and might, just might, be something I’ll develop into an artwork. Let’s see ….

This is part of the Home and Hinterland project, sponsored by Swansea University’s Taliesin Arts Centre.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the antique taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these vintage artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.

Half ‘n’ Half

I started this drawing, the half on the left, one Sunday, walking around Waun Wen. It was freezing cold and my fingerless gloves left me too numb to carry on. The following week, I went back and did the other half, on the right. It was warmer. This is part of the Home and Hinterland art project sponsored by Swansea University’s Taliesin Arts Centre. I’m going to be out and about in Waun Wen on Sundays and Tuesdays for the next couple of months, doing art in the street and in the park, so stop and say hello if you see me 😀

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the antique taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these vintage artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.

Walk Waun Wen, Talk Waun Wen

I’ve had a bit of a break for the holidays but next week I’m back into my community arts project in the Swansea district of Waun Wen. It’s part of a Wales-wide contemporary art project called “Home and Hinterland”, and locally it’s a partnership with Swansea University’s Taliesin Arts Centre. I love the area and can’t wait to start up again. I’m wandering the streets on Sunday and Tuesday afternoons for the next couple of months, doing art, so if you see me come up and say hello.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the antique taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these vintage artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.

Newspaper Scribbles

I like drawing on newspaper, it’s free so there’s no fretting over the possibility of spoiling an expensive piece of paper. It’s good for doing quick sketches en plein air when I’m out and about, when I’m drawing from life and have just a few seconds to get something down on the paper before someone moves. But it gets damp and crinkles so it’s no good for keeping. It’s purely for practice. I used willow charcoal to draw these.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the antique taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these vintage artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.