Framing The Model

Here’s the last life drawing I did at this week’s session, it’s a 50 minute pose and I used Daler Rowney Artist’s soft pastels onto a heavyweight vintage paper. It’s always a bit of a problem fitting the model onto the paper, so framing the subject is important. I decided to put our model into the background so I could fit him all in and emphasised the geometric shapes of the materials and cushions he was sitting on to fill up the rest of the paper.

The pastels are gorgeous. They’re nice to scribble with but they really shine with saturated pigment when I rub them with my fingers, releasing the oils and vibrant colours. Rubbing emphasises the rough texture of the beautiful paper as well.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique 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 and to see the complete image.

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

A Bit Skewiff

Here’s a 30 minute drawing from the life drawing session at Swansea Print Workshop the other evening. I went a bit skewiff with this one, with some deliberately wobbly lines, having a bit of fun with the shapes and pushing myself away from representational drawing. I’m using Daler Rowney soft pastels onto vintage paper.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique 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 and to see the complete image.

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

Taking Liberties

Here’s another life drawing from yesterday evening’s session at Swansea Print Workshop. I use standard sheets of paper and rarely cut them into another shape, which I suppose is a bit lazy. It’s often difficult to fit the subject into the paper without either cutting bits off or having lots of empty space. I love the work of the Austrian artist Egon Schiele, who happily distorted human figures to fit his paper, so I gave it a go with this one. Our model isn’t shaped like this, I took liberties.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique 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 and to see the complete image.

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

Just Back …..

Just back from life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop. It’s late and I’m off to bed soon. Here’s a 10 minute pose from our brilliant model. I drew with sanguine and black conte crayons onto vintage paper.

Nos Da, Good Night

From Sketch To Drawing

I have sketchbooks stuffed full of drawings stuffed into cupboards but I rarely work from them, once they’re done they tend to be forgotten. So I’ve decided to go back to them and try and develop something using different materials.

This is a recent sketch in ballpoint pen done in a local quarry. It’s linear and very much about mark making and I wanted to take it into colour so I used soft oil pastels (Daler Rowney) onto a very textured heavyweight Khadi handmade paper. I’ve been looking at some other artists whose use of colour I admire – historically Gabriele Munter and contemporary artists Christian Niblo Lloyd and Aletha Kuschan and they’ve inspired me to try and let go of my almost obsessive detailed ballpoint sketching into something more expressive.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique 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 and to see the complete image.

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

Finally Finished Vincent’s Bedroom

I finally finished faffing with van Gogh’s painting of his bedroom in Arles. I started it a few weeks ago on one of painter Ed Sumner’s Zoom tutorials. It’s a lot more complex than it looks. Vincent’s brushwork is multi-layered and his composition, although it looks simple, has some difficult distorted perspective. Of course I can still see loads that could be improved upon, but I need to stop and carry on with something else. I painted in Liquitex heavy body acrylics onto a stretched and primed canvas. Here are some of the stages of the apinting.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique 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 and to see the complete image.

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

Copper Crucibles Part 2: The Raku Firing

I went along to a raku firing this evening, headed up by local ceramicist Esther Ley at the National Waterfront Museum. I’d made some little clay crucibles a while back – part of the Swansea University Copperworks Project – and today was the decorating and firing session. They had already been fired once, the bisque firing, so today we decorated our tiny pots with wax resist, various oxides as liquids and solidified in wax, and glazes – one transparent and one white. I did 10, here are the five I’m happy with. A 50% success rate isn’t bad at all for raku.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique 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 and to see the complete image.

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

Little World In The Woods

I’ve been on holiday, visiting relatives in the North of England, a lovely break from the pandemic routine and the first time I’ve seen my family in about 18 months – too long but there we go. My littlest relative took me to see his special place in the local woods. He calls it Garlicville because it’s covered in wild garlic in the Spring. There’s a little stream running through the tall, dense trees and he’s been building a bridge across it with sticks he’s picked up from the ground.

He carried on building his little bridge and I sat on a moss covered trunk and sketched him. Not a particularly good sketch, I had promised myself I’d take a week off doing any art – it was a holiday after all – but I couldn’t resist quickly drawing him making his little world in the woods. I used white, black and sanguine conte crayons into a brown paper spiral bound sketchbook.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique 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 and to see the complete image.

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

Been On Holiday

Husb and I have been on holiday, visiting relatives in Cumbria, the Lake District. We spent some time in Ulverston, one of our favourite places, almost 750 years old and the birthplace of the comedy actor Stan Laurel. We came across these two, masked up, in an alleyway in Ulverston, close by the town’s Laurel and Hardy Museum. Ulverston also has the BEST pie shop in the country, in my opinion, Irvings Butchers. We bought some pies to fortify us on the journey home. And some for tomorrow 😀

It was a nice rest and wonderful to see family that we haven’t seen in the real world since 2019. It’s been a long time, too long. Back to work tomorrow, I have two paintings to finish and some printmaking ideas to start working up into designs.

Nearly Finished The Sky

I did a bit more work on the sky painting I started yesterday at Ed Sumner’s online “Cheese and Wine Painting Club“. I think I’ll have to do a bit more faffing; a couple of the smaller clouds are too dark and there’s more to be done on the reflections of the clouds in the water, as well as a tiny bit of faffage on the trees. But nearly there. Faffage. Is that a word? Well, it is now.

I used Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic paint onto a primed stretched canvas.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique 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 and to see the complete image.

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