Another lockdown walk this evening and another charcoal drawing of a grand old yew tree in Cwmdonkin Park. There are loads of yews there, gnarled, ridged, wrinkled. Some of them have branches that have grown back into the main trunk of the tree, other branches wrap round the main trunk like they were ivy. I’m drawing into a lovely Khadi hand-made paper sketchbook. The paper is heavy, textured with deckle edges and it’s an ethical company too.
Husb and I are still following our lockdown exercise routine most days, even though the restrictions are much more easy going now. It’s a good system that’s kept us going for the past four months so we might as well keep it up. I stopped to do a charcoal sketch into my Khadi sketchbook of this formidable old yew tree in Cwmdonkin Park. It’s gnarled and twisted and the shapes writhing all over, in and out of it, trigger the imagination. If you click on the link, you’ll find information about the childhood of the poet Dylan Thomas’ in the park.
I also made a rhubarb crumble – our back garden is a rhubarb jungle – it’s been fantastic this year but I’m running out of ideas for using it up. Luckily it’s popular in my family. I didn’t get to take a photo of it before my nephew got his share – he’s a strapping lad and a massive crumble fan. Husb will see the rest off.
It’s been a funny old day. Quite busy with work, then sorting out my vegetable plants, redesigning my computer station so that I can work standing up, Tai Chi followed by a cold shower with a nod to Wim Hof, the car died and got towed away for scrap, my first reflexology treatment for four months, discovered an unconscious man slumped in a doorway, argument with the woman from emergency services because I wouldn’t touch him – no PPE and it’s a pandemic, he was breathing, no blood, no signs of broken bones, just unconscious – waited until the ambulance came with staff maxed out on PPE, got a Chinese takeaway.
Then I made this plum tarte tatin. And Husb and I ate it. The plums are from my own little tree in a pot in the garden. The plum fruit moths had them earlier in the season, but I waited for them to leave and apart from a bit of a blemish on the skins, they were fine. I don’t mind sharing. The fruit tasted delicious.
Every week since early in lockdown we have had a family quiz with relatives from as far afield as Australia and Ammanford. It’s helped us all to cope, especially when the lockdown was at its toughest, although our Australian family are now in a second lockdown. Zoom came along at the right time.
I used up some more leftover paint and paper and had a play with squiggles earlier too. I like the way the heavy Bockingford paper breaks up the paint. I guess I’ll eventually use these scraps in some collages.
I spent the morning at Swansea Print Workshop – we are doing a very limited re-opening now that the Covid19 restrictions are relaxing. I want to finish an edition of screenprints I made from a drawing of a stuffed seagull back last Autumn. I printed a load of seagulls on newsprint while I was getting the strength of the ink right so I used a couple of these today to try out different backgrounds. I’m thinking of making a photoscreen from fruit nets to create the background. There’s so much rubbish in the environment, loads of plastic pollution, so I’m going to use some with the seagull. I’m not necessarily going to use these colours but at the moment I’m trying to get the composition right.
I finally finished Friday’s fake painting, J. M. W. Turner’s “The Fighting Temeraire”. I decided after a few weeks in lockdown, when it looked like we were in for the long haul, to improve my painting skills. So I joined the Friday lunchtime “Cheese and Wine Painting Club” (which has nothing to do with cheese or wine). I like studying from great artists but normally I stand in front of them in museums with a sketchbook and draw, so taking apart their painting techniques is new to me. I’m learning loads about how to handle paint and brushes and how to layer paint onto the canvas. I’m also getting used to painting on canvas. I used to hate how it felt beneath the brush, it’s still not as nice as paper, but it’s growing on me.
In the film of Turner’s life, with Timothy Spall, it showed that Turner spat on his paintings a lot. So I gave it a go.
The Cheese and Wine Painting Club is family friendy and free or a donation from those who can afford to. It’s led by the artist Ed Sumner who is an excellent teacher. It’s informative and FUN. Here’s a link to the next one, which is a Banksy.
Had some more leftover paint again today so I played with it and had a squiggle session on some leftovers Bockingford paper. I’m beginning to enjoy the feel of the paint on the paper and the way it layers up and changes. Oh, and I used a pallette knife as well – advanced stuff 😀
Had a bit more of a play today, using up leftover Liquitex acrylic paint on some leftover Bockingford paper. It’s not meant to look like anything, I’m trying to enjoy the paint for its own sake, which isn’t easy for me to do, I don’t lean naturally towards abstract painting.
I take art very seriously, possibly too seriously and it’s very hard for me to relax and enjoy what I’m doing. I’ve long admired Swansea-born artist Niblo (Christian) Lloyd, for his ability to take paper and paint and get on with it, enjoying the experience of doing it. I’m also very frugal and I don’t like wasting anything so after the weekly painting class I’ve been doing on Facebook (more below) I have a fair bit of good, expensive acrylic paint left over. So I’ve been taking a leaf out of Niblo’s book and just getting on with painting for the sake of it. These are very small and might end up in collages.
I’ve been painting along with the Cheese and Wine Painting Club every Friday at midday, taught by painter Ed Sumner. It’s been my lockdown challenge to improve my painting skills and between Ed and Niblo, I think I’m getting somewhere.
Husb and I have been walking regularly through the pandemic and we’re keeping up with it even though the lockdown has been eased. One of our routes takes us through Cwmdonkin Park, made famous by the poet Dylan Thomas, and there are many large specimen trees. This one is huge and spreads out from a wide trunk. I used willow charcoal into my Khadi sketchbook.
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