A Carving, A Cat, And A Horse’s Skull

Cut 1

After a long break, I did some lino cutting today. It’s been months ….. I don’t think I’ve gone as long as this without doing some printmaking. The pandemic has had a strange effect on me and although I’ve been doing loads of painting and drawing, I haven’t been able to work up the enthusiasm to do any printmaking. Until now.

It’s almost time for the Mari Lwyd to make an appearance. She’s an ancient tradition, based on a horse’s skull, and for the past couple of years I’ve made New Year greeting cards of her from lino cuts. So I got stuck in today and quickly got into the zone. Hope to have it finished in a couple of days and printed up, ready to send out in plenty of time for Hen Galan the “old” New Year.

And the cat “helped” me …….

Sparta helps 1

 

 

 

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.

Inspired by drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique artefacts 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.

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

 

Finally Finished Faking And A Bit More Baking

Mountain final

I finally finished faking the Cezanne landscape I started last Friday. He’s a very complex painter, the canvas is covered in layers and layers of translucent paint, and pigment dragged on with a dry brush so you can see so many subtle colours glowing through the entire work.

I also finished icing some little Xmas cakes I made to give as gifts this year. They’ve been soaking up whisky for the past couple of months 😀

Xmas cake 2 2020

 

 

 

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.

Inspired by drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique artefacts 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.

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

 

Squinting

Mountain 10

I carried on working on last Friday’s fake painting, a landscape by Cezanne. The strident orange needed to be knocked back a bit, which I did with a very thin wash of watered down titanium white (Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic). But then I lost the lowlights so I had a good squint at the original and put the darkest tones back in with a translucent Van Dyke Red, which is really a rich russet brown. I think I’ve got the light/dark balance about right now, so next I’ll go over the dark red with a translucent green to get a dark tone that is nearer to the original.

I did some baking too, bola do caco – Madeiran sweet potato bread, cooked on a maen (griddle). It was gorgeous. Definitely one to do again.

bola do caco

 

 

 

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.

Inspired by drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique artefacts 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.

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

Faking And Baking … Again

Tulips 6

I finished this fake Monet today – Tulip Fields. I started it the Friday before last in Ed Sumner’s Cheese and Wine Painting Club and it’s taken me a while, but that’s the trouble with the Impressionists – all those little dots and dashes take ages.

And Husb did some baking today – our first mince pies of the season. Lovely. They will be shown no mercy 😀

Mince pies 2020

 

 

 

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.

Inspired by drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique artefacts 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.

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

 

Yet Another Faking Friday

Mountain 9

It’s faking Friday again with painter Ed Sumner at the Cheese and Wine Painting Club over on Facebook. Ed’s been running these lunchtime painting sessions since lockdown began in March and I joined in 4 or 5 weeks later. Today we copied a Cezanne landscape. I have maybe an hour or so more to do on it – I need to knock back that strident orange and add a bit more detail.

 

 

 

 

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.

Inspired by drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique artefacts 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.

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

 

Craft And Cake

Potato 1

Today, like yesterday, was another day of craft and cake. I work part time as an arts educator for a homelessness charity and today I ran a Zoom session making Xmas wrapping paper and labels with potato prints. I haven’t done them since primary school but it was fun and the results weren’t too bad at all.

Potato 2
Brown paper, a potato and an ink stamp pad

Then I made a chocolate buttercream sticky plum cake. As you do. Very gooey, very chocolatey, very sticky.

chocolate plum buttercream

But tomorrow I shall do art ……

 

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.

Inspired by drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique artefacts 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.

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

 

Crafty

craft

No art today, did craft instead. I iced my Xmas cake which I made from scratch and I was shown how to make a psychedelic origami Xmas tree by my lovely colleague from Crisis South Wales.

 

 

 

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.

Inspired by drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique artefacts 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.

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

 

The Lounging Pose

Dave 60 mins 6

Here’s the last drawing / painting I did at life drawing last week. It was a 60 minute pose – nearly – in gouache onto black paper. I like these lounging poses, they’re very natural. Having an hour gave me a chance to really concentrate on things like perspective, foreshortening and measuring. It isn’t as immediate or alive as some of the quicker poses though.

 

 

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.

Inspired by drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique artefacts 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.

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

 

Uncle Bryn In Gouache

Scribblah Brydon 2

I finished this gouache portrait sketch of the Welsh actor Rob Brydon, in his incarnation as Uncle Bryn from Gavin and Stacey. It’s for the GS Artists / 9-to-90 Creative Community Art Festival in Swansea. Last year the subject was Michael Sheen – I did him in embroidery. I think I got a better likeness with Michael Sheen, I found him easier to draw. This year my lockdown challenge has been to improve my painting skills and I’ve never done much wth gouache before – it’s lovely. I really like it. Here are the stages I went through for this painting. I started it at Tomos Sparnon’s art workshop at GS Artists a couple of weeks ago.

 

 

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.

Inspired by drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique artefacts 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.

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

 

After The Short Poses ….

Dave 30 mins b

After the short poses at life drawing sessions, we move on to 30 minute poses, where I can focus a bit more on the details, but not too much. This week I did a portrait and a reclining pose. Two of my favourites. I’m using gouache into a black sketchbook.

Dave 30 mins

 

 

 

 

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.

Inspired by drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique artefacts 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.

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