Cockling The Labyrinth

Back in 1987, the Rosehill Quarry Project was turning an overgrown disused quarry on the outskirts of Swansea’s city centre into a nature reserve and community park. One of the things that was built there was a Cretan labyrinth. It was cut into the turf, revealing the red ash surface of the old tennis courts and filled with cockle shells, a by-product of the local shellfish industry in nearby Penclawdd. Every summer local people and labyrinth enthusiasts meet up to recut the edges of the labyrinth’s path and lay down new cockle shells. The drawing shows a stylised sketch of the labyrinth with Dewi Bowen sitting on a seat looking on. I drew with conte crayons onto paper that I had prepared with my home made walnut ink.

The labyrinth was conceived and built by Bob Shaw and Dewi Bowen; Dewi came along today, 34 years after its creation, to talk to us about how it all happened. It’s great that so many people turned up to cut back the overgrowth around the labyrinth’s edge and to get stuck into “cockling” the paths, especially as we couldn’t do it last year because of the Covid19 lockdown. I found a quiet space perched above the action to draw from.

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 Painting Now In A Minute

I painted a seascape a few weeks ago – here’s a timelapse video of me doing it – all in just a minute – I wish!

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.

Rosehill Quarry Brought Me A Husband

I did this sketch a couple of weeks ago in Rosehill Quarry, a place very dear to me. Swansea musician and composer Angharad Jenkins, “Sienco”, who lives near the Quarry worked with the local community to write a new folk song based on the history of the place, which is fascinating. The stone from Rosehill Quarry, perched on the hill, was used to build Swansea Town and her song traces it’s journey from those early days, through highs and lows to its present use as a beautiful urban nature reserve and park for local people. It’s a hidden gem and a lovely place to be.

By the 1980s, the Quarry was completely overgrown and neglected but local people got together with Swansea Council to get funding from a UK-wide government job creation programme which gave temporary work to unemployed people – I was one of them – it was a period of very high unemployment here. I started work with the team renovating the Quarry and there I met the man who was to become Husb. Oh yes. How romantic is that? He was unemployed too so we were brought together by Rosehill Quarry – and Thatcherism. Here I am drawing the labyrinth in Rosehill Quarry a few years ago.

You can listen to Angharad’s lovely song on Instagram here, or on Facebook here.

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.

Testing, Testing 1,2,3…

I’m doing some teaching tomorrow, taking a group of people for a walk to an inner city nature park, a reclaimed quarry and we’re going to be doing cyanotypes (aka sunprints). I’ve always done these from scratch in the past, mixing the chemicals and coating paper or fabric myself, but this time I’ll be using commercial cyanotype paper. So I thought I’d better test it out first to make sure there are no glitches.

I roped in Husb to help, which was a good idea because we needed two pairs of hands to work with plants outside in the garden – I decided I didn’t want to encourage people to break bits off tomorrow, to leave the plants intact. I tried 3 different times – 1 minute, 2.5 minutes and 5 minutes (left to right above). I think the 2.5 minute exposure is the best, it was a very bright day today. The commercial paper is much thinner than I’m used to working with but as a cost effective kit for beginners, I think it’s pretty good.

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.

I Thought I’d Finished …. I Was Wrong

I decided to do some more work on the big Family Pandemic Zoom Quiz painting I (thought I’d) completed earlier in the year. The original had a plain black border, but in reality the laptop sits on my lap (the clue’s in the name) and I can see part of my living room over the top. There’s also a load of digital gubbins at the bottom of the screen and then there’s what’s on the top of the keyboard bit as well. So more complicated and more real is the way to go. I’ve just started sketching in the living room bit at the top of the painting at the moment – lots of work to do, might be almost as demanding as the set of portraits. Here’s the original below.

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.

Drawing A Head

I thought I’d do a portrait at last week’s life drawing session. It’s good practice to try and get a likeness as well as a half decent drawing. Our model is a very striking looking person and is really interesting to draw, sculptural. I used sanguine and white conte crayons onto a slightly textured 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.

A Bit Sculptural

After the two five minute poses at the start of every life drawing session, we move onto a 10 minute pose and then a 30 minute one. I was tired this week, end of a long day, and I found it hard to concentrate. The one on the left was 10 minutes and I think it’s scrappy, so I changed tack and started working with sanguine and white conte crayons as well as the black. I worked very slowly but I like the effect, it’s a bit sculptural.

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.

Tired Legs and Skewiff Sketching

Here are the two quick 5 minute poses from last night’s life drawing session at Swansea Print Workshop. I was really tired when I got there, just had time for a bit of tea after work, and I decided not to use an easel but to sit down and draw. Problem with that is the proportions go a bit skewiff, it always seems to happen when I’m not standing to draw. But my legs told me that I’m just going to have to live with that.

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.

Choppy Texture

Here’s the latest fake I did with Ed Sumner’s Cheese and Wine Painting Club on Facebook. Ed started the weekly lunchtime sessions at the start of Covid19 lockdown in March last year and he’s done about 70 so far. This week it’s a copy of a painting by David Hockney. I think the original shows that Hockney may be very influenced by van Gogh. I used a recycled canvas that had been painted on before; this gave me a lot of choppy texture to start with which I think fitted in well with the layered, fractured style of the original.

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.

Painting My Plums A Bit More

I started to paint a still life of plums from a food photo I took way back at the beginning of the Covid19 lockdown last Spring. I was cooking like a maniac and my creativity was channelled into photographing what I was doing. The photo is from a recipe called “Hot Buttered Plums” – here it is. It tastes lovely, even if I do say so myself.

I’ve built up layers of translucent glazes of Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic paint over the original layers of opaque colours. I’m trying to get the renaissance-y look of the original photo so there’s a long way to go yet.

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.