The Collage, The Tip And The Cake

Tip 1

I’ve been smearing leftover paints onto nice papers over the past few months, building up a store of collage papers to experiment with. I recently started thinking about the Hafod tip in Swansea which was opposite my bedroom window for much of my childhood. And looming above it in the distance was the equally black and ruined Kilvey Hill. It took many years to remove the tip and bring life back to the hill, but they’re unrecognisable now.

Tip 1a

I thought I’d start ripping up fragments of the collage papers to stick into my sketchbook and then cover them with a sheet of cellophane and paint it with black acrylic paint. That way I can try things out without putting the black paint over the collage papers. Once the acrylic paint is dry, I can scrape into it, rub sections away, play with it to reveal some of the background colours and textures. Early days yet though.

Xmas cake 2020

Oh and I baked my Xmas cake. And made the last rhubarb crumble of the year.

 

 

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.

In The Zone

Klimt 5

I’ll be working on this fake Klimt for ages. It’s so detailed. The composition is more or less ok and I’ll leave the finer points of the portrait until the end, so now I’m doing loads and loads of patterns. It’s nice though, I just relax and get in the zone. I’m learning so much as well about how to handle paint and brushes. It’s such good practice to study a painting in depth, analysing how the artist did it. This is one of the paintings I’ve done with the Cheese and Wine Painting Club on Facebook on Fridays. Next Friday is a Rousseau.

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 Faking Another Vincent

wheat 7

And here’s another fake, hot off the easel! It’s a copy of the van Gogh “Wheatfield” that I started in last Friday’s Cheese and Wine Painting Club over on Facebook. I’m losing count now but I think it’s about 24 that I’ve done since April. The session’s tutor, painter Ed Sumner, has been running these weekly since the first lockdown started, offering tuition for a donation or free for those who can’t afford it.

 

 

The subject of next Friday’s Cheese and Wine Painting Club is Rousseau’s “The Mandrill” – please click here to take a look.

 

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.

Painting Gold And Copper

Klimt 4

I did some more work on my copy of Gustav Klimt’s “Woman In Gold” today. I started it mid week on a Zoom painting tutorial with painter Ed Sumner who runs the Friday lunchtime Cheese and Wine Painting Club on Facebook. My #lockdown2020 challenge is to improve my painting skills and I’m learning loads. I think this is the 23rd painting I’ve copied since April, using Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic paints and Daler Rowney brushes for acrylics. I’m trying out the metallic ones in gold and copper.

Klimt 4a

It’s so interesting to study another artist’s techniques. Klimt’s composition is quite simple, the portrait sublime and everything else is playing with patterns. It’s a good exercise in using paint and brushes in different ways too. Sometimes I’m using them like watercolours, thin and fine, then I’m stippling with the flat end of a brush and fairly thick paint – like Bob Ross does his happy little trees. Then I’m using a ‘dry brush’ technique, dragging small amounts of paint across the canvas surface, depositing a tiny amount, almost imperceptible. It’s all good practice.

If you want to join in with the painting club, check it out here, the next one is a Rousseau. The Friday lunchtime sessions are free if you don’t have much to spare, or a donation if you can afford to. People join in from all over the world, all ages, and it’s good fun as well as learning a lot.

 

 

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.

Caturday’s Scribble

pandemic scribble 1

Had a busy day today, doing some essential shopping for a relative and getting my one hour government sanctioned lockdown brisk walk and now I just want to slob out on the settee watching mindless telly with Sparta Puss at my side. But I didn’t do any art! So I grabbed a new sketchbook (Daler Rowney A4 95gsm acid free) and some conté crayons in black, white and sanguine and scribbled the cat, without having to move from the settee. Then I took a photo with the camera on my Smartphone (there’s magic) and uploaded it to my laptop (or is that downloaded), did a bit of cropping and resizing on Photoshop (ooh get me) and here she is. Simples.

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 Vincent

wheat 4

This afternoon’s Cheese and Wine Painting Club on Facebook was about van Gogh and this lovely painting of a wheatfield and cypress trees. The session is an hour and a half but I rarely finish in that time. I reckon I have perhaps a couple more hours on this, so that’s something for the weekend.

I use Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic paints and Daler Rowney brushes for acrylics onto a primed canvas from Wilkinsons. The painting club has been running every week since the beginning of the first UK lockdown in March. Painter Ed Sumner is a great teacher and it’s suitable for all ability levels. Ed asks people who can afford to make a donation through Paypal or Eventbrite so that people who can’t afford to pay can join in, which is a really nice thing to do – he has to earn a living after all. Ed’s next Friday class is Rousseau’s “The Mandrill” – please click here to take a look.

 

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.

 

More Scrapings

scrapings 2

I was brought up thrifty, some might say frugal. One of the sayings I heard most when I was a kid was “waste not, want not” and I still live by that. So when I paint, any pigment left on the palette at the end is scraped off with a palette knife and scraped onto some of my lush leftovers papers. I dont’ know what, if anything, I’ll do with these scrapings but it’s good practice at using a palette knife and gives me some ideas for colour combinations. The paint is Liquitex Heavy Body and the paper is a very heavy hand-made Khadi.

 

 

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.

 

 

Woman In Gold

Klimt 4

 

I signed up for one of painter Ed Sumner’s small tutorial groups this evening, copying “Woman In Gold” by Gustav Klimt – one of my favourite artists, paintings and films (Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds).  It was a very intense two hours and there’s loads more to do, but that’ll keep me occupied for the next few days of hard lockdown. Please check out Ed’s Friday afternoon Cheese and Wine Painting Club that he’s been doing weekly since the Covid19 lockdown started in March. The Friday sessions are free for those that can’t afford to pay and a donation at the discretion of those that can. This Friday’s is a van Gogh.

Off to bed now, it’s late, and I’ll be carrying on with this for the foreseeable future …..

Finding Ideas And The Hafod Tip

tip 1e
Building the strata of the gigantic tip with collage papers

I love watching the late great Bob Ross on the TV. I don’t particularly like his paintings but I love to listen to him and his observations. One of the things he says a lot is that painting isn’t difficult, what’s hard is deciding what to paint, coming up with ideas. That’s so true.

tip 1a
Two pieces of Fabriano Accademica 200gsm paper with my home made walnut ink dripped over them.

I’ve hit a creative block during the Covid19 pandemic and I’m trying out all sorts of things to lift it. But the issue isn’t really with skills or techniques as I do a lot of practice, it’s finding somthing to inspire me. My life would be a lot easier if I painted portraits or nice landscapes, there’s always a market for those, but they just don’t motivate me.

tip 1b
I added a ripped piece of Fabriano Accademica that I had scribbled randomly with soft pastels

Earlier today, Husb and I were chatting about our childhoods. It was recently the anniversary of the Aberfan tragedy, but that wasn’t the only tip in Wales. Husb and I grew up on opposite sides of the Hafod tip in Swansea and after Aberfan the authorities removed it. It took many years and it was filthy. We breathed and ate that tip as we were growing up. It was very toxic and after it was flattened, they built a school on it. Who cares if working class kids go to school on top of toxic waste, eh?

tip 1c
I added a couple of pieces of vintage W. H. Saunders paper that I had screenprinted with some small drawings from my sketch books – I didn;t like them so I scribbled over and over with chalks, charcoals and soft pastels.

Anyway, I remembered that it was the very first thing I ever painted. Someone had bought me some kids paints for my birthday, I guess I was about 8 or 9, and the Hafod tip loomed huge outside my bedroom window. So I painted it’s overwhelming darkness over and over again. Maybe I was an odd kid. So I went back to that imagery and started playing with pieces of paper from my plans chest – papers that over the years I have coloured with inks, pastels and leftover paints.

tip 1d
And another strip of the dark squiggles over the bottom edge of the walnut paper

I have no idea where this is going, maybe nowhere, but maybe I need to explore my past a bit and see what happens. The good thing about using these collage papers is that once I’ve taken the photos, I can dismantle the whole thing and start again. Let’s see …..

 

 

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.

Sparta Puss And The Magpie

Magpie final

Today I finished off the copy I made of Monet’s painting “The Magpie”, started with Ed Sumner’s Cheese and Wine Painting Club on Facebook. So many shades of white! I used Liquitex heavy body acrylic paints, Daler Rowney brushes for acrylics and a primed canvas from Wilkinsons. Oh, and a couple of palette knives. In fact, I mostly used the palette knives, which is something new for me.

Sparta Puss isn’t impressed. We have a pair of magpies that return to nest in the tree next door every year and they are her sworn enemies. She’s never managed to harm them though. She’s a little on the ….. chunky side and can’t climb up as far as the nest. They torment her, throw stones at her and scream at her from the other side of the window when she’s indoors. She hates them.

Sparta Magpie

 

 

 

 

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.