Long Haul Faff

I carried on faking “Storms at Sea” by Joseph Mallord William Turner today. It’s a long haul, it’s built up of many textures and layers of paint and it’s quite hard to see these in the print-out I have. I discovered a new way (new to me anyway) to apply the paint today, using thick undiluted paint that has been loaded onto the very end of a square shaped brush and dabbing it lightly on the canvas. It’s starting to get to the range of textures in the original.

Turner himself used to apply the paint in all sorts of ways, even spitting onto the canvas. Here’s a trailer of the film Mr. Turner made by Mike Leigh with Timothy Spall as Turner. The film shows a lot of his painting technique.

I began the painting on Friday a my weekly session with Ed Sumner’s Cheese and Wine Painting Club. Ed’s been running this since the beginning of the first lockdown, almost a year now, and it’s free or a donation for those who can afford it.

 

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.

Sunflowers Or Sea Urchins?

I carried on with this copy of one of van Gogh’s famous sunflower paintings. He did about eight of them and this one has a lush blue background. There are two different types of sunflower in the vase and when you get up close to the painting, the lower ones look a bit like sea urchins. They’re definitely the hardest to paint. At the moment mine look like exceptionally hairy sea urchins, while Vincent’s are a lot more spiny, so that’s my challenge, learn how to make paint look spiny. That’s all 😀

 

 

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.

 

Turner’s Tough!

Friday today and my weekly faking session with Ed Sumner’s Cheese and Wine Painting Club. This week it’s “Storms at Sea” by Joseph Mallord William Turner. Duw it’s hard! A lot of Turner’s work is abstract and this is particularly so and I don’t really get abstract. I’m finding this one tough going. But I’m determined to do a good job because giving up means I won’t learn. I’ll probably be faffing around with it a lot more over the weekend.

 

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.

Guess Who I’m Faking?

I’m doing some extra faking this week. When Ed Sumner started the Cheese and Wine Painting Club at the beginning of Lockdown 1.0, almost a year ago now, I didn’t join until the 6th session so I thought I’d go back and look at some of the ones he did right at the start. Including this icon – van Gogh’s Sunflowers. Well, one of them, I believe he painted about 8, all a bit different. Perhaps a couple more hours work on this one – his painting is really quite complex, lots of layers of tiny fragments of paint.

 

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.

Speed Scribbling At The Vaccination Centre

I had the first of my Covid19 vaccinations today, what a relief. And a lovely day out as the vaccination centre is in the beautiful Margam Park Orangery. The most excitement I’ve had in months! There was a little bit of sitting down to do, so I did some very speedy continuous line sketches. The staff there, a mixture of NHS and army, were really quick administering the vaccines and I only had a few seconds to capture an image. It’s such good practice and there’s no time to focus on details – just get on with it!

Here’s the entrance – what a gorgeous setting for having someone stab you with a needle 😀

 

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.

Mugshot Update

Husb and I have been doing a bit more work on our mugshots aka slow selfies aka self-portraits. We’re turning out to look like a right pair of criminals 😀 We’re working from life, not photos, so we have to concentrate really hard and this is what we look like when we concentrate really hard. I’m standing above the mirror, looking down, so there’s a lot of foreshortening, which I like, although it’s not a flattering POV, up yer nose 😀 We both have one or two sessions more to work on them, it’s a long process, building up the layers and getting the details right.

We started these at a self-portrait painting workshop about a week ago, led by the fabulous Welsh artist Tomos Sparnon and hosted by the most excellent GS Artists in Swansea. They have a programme of Zoom art sessions coming up over the next few months – click here for information on their next one.

As it’s Saint David’s Day, Dydd Gwyl Dewi Sant, here in Wales I made Welsh cakes, on a traditional iron griddle or bakestone, maen in Welsh. They won’t last long .

 

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.

Finished Faffing And Faking

I finished Friday’s fake with minimum faffing this week. I paint along with Ed Sumner’s Cheese and Wine Painting Club each week and I usually spend a few hours over the weekend finishing the paintings. But this week I only did about half an hour extra. This composition, Monet’s “San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk”, is quite a simple composition so there was plenty of time to concentrate on applying the paint. Monet used many layers of colours, overlaid in dashes, but I find that once I get stuck in, the paint goes on fairly quickly. Here are the stages of the painting.

 

 

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.

 

A Bit Of Faff

It’s Friday so it’s faking day with Ed Sumner’s Cheese and Wine Painting Club on Facebook. Today we painted Monet’s “San Giorgio Maggiore At Dusk“. The original was donated to the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff by Gwendoline Davies. I used Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic paint onto a prepared canvas. I’ve done a lot in the one and a quarter hours but it needs a bit more faffing around before it’s finished. That’s what I’ll be doing this weekend.

 

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 With The Cat – The Film

Here’s a speeded up video of me painting a copy of Andre Derain’s “Charing Cross Bridge”, painted in 1906 in the Fauvist style. With Sparta Puss, the cat. She likes to muscle in on the action. There’s about 3 hours of action compressed into 3 minutes.

I started painting it in the Cheese and Wine Painting Club run by painter Ed Sumner every Friday on Facebook. He’s been running it since the start of the first lockdown almost a year ago. It’s free or a donation if you can afford and it’s great fun. Here’s a link to the next one ….. it’s a Monet.

 

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.

Free Zoom Art – Skulls And Sticking

I’m an educator as well as an artist and I run a lot of art sessions and workshops, on Zoom in these pandemic times. I have a free one coming up, “Get Sticky With Scribblah”, organised by GS Artists in Swansea and the 9to90 Creative Community, on Saturday (27th February) 10.30 – 12.30 UTC. Click here to find out how to register. There’s no cost but places are limited so book early. You don’t need anything special, just a sheet of paper, a pencil or ballpoint pen, a glue stick (or PVA glue) and some coloured papers – junk mail or magazines are fine. Collage is a very low cost way to be creative and I’ll be showing people how to draw a skull from scratch and then we’ll decorate it with cutting, ripping and sticking. Here’s one I’m half way through (above).

I’ll also be doing a brief illustrated talk about the history of collage and the use of skulls in art. It’s suitable for beginners to experts and ages 9 to 90 (+), would be lovely to see you there.

 

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.