Sharpening Tools

august

Just carrying on cutting blocks today for my pandemic printmaking project. I’m still in the early stages but I know what I need to do and that’s most of the battle, to be honest. I keep my tools super sharp as I’m carving the lino, using my Flexcut Slip Strop.

Twenty eight blocks

I’ve cut almost a third of the little blocks. The whole piece will be made up of text printed onto fabric.

Calligraphy set

I treated myself to this Chinese calligraphy set. I don’t like shopping unless it’s for tools and art materials – oh, and books. I don’t know how to use it but I’ve been getting advice from over on Facebook and Instagram. I don’t think I’ll be trying it out for a while as I need to crack on with my lino project and I’m also doing a weekly painting session to improve my skills. But this is something to look forward to.

I Hated Doing This One!

field 5

I finally finished the painting I started with Facebook’s Cheese and Wine Painting Club over a week ago. It’s a weekly session where people join in online to paint a fake. This is the first time I really found it a chore and to be honest I hated doing it, which is why it’s taken me so long. I kept putting it off. I decided after a few weeks in lockdown to improve my painting skills and so far this has been a good way of doing it. I shouldn’t moan, I suppose if it’s hard then I’m probably learning more than if I sail through it. All those sunflowers and lavender were so incredibly fiddly. Good discipline though.

 

Tonto The Dog And A Pochoir Design

Jack 2

I don’t often take on design work but I need to put together an adult education instruction pamphlet, cutting stencils and building up layers of acrylic paint for a finished “pochoir“. It’s a word that’s hardly ever used now, it’s a multi layered stencil print. It was very popular in the first half of the 20th century and Picasso, Matisse, Braque and Miro are some of the artists who used the technique.

Jack 1

I started with a simple sketch of a Jack Russell, then I worked out how many colours I am going to print, which will give me the amount of stencils I need to cut. Then I had a practice doing some bones for the background, in gouache. I haven’t used gouache for yonks – years and years – but I had some in a box. They’re a good make, Winsor & Newton, so they’re still in excellent condition. I’d forgotten how much fun gouache is to play with.

That’s the guts of the design worked out, I’ll refine it as I’m cutting the stencils and decide on the final composition when I’m ready to print.

I love Jack Russells. My favourite is Tonto, who appeared on UK television in adverts for John Smith’s bitter. He was a great little dog. Here he is on video.

Slobbing On The Settee

settee august

Today took some weird turns and I ended up doing things I wasn’t planning on, like making the most of the cooler weather to take the small hairy bandy-legged Pomerpoo for a long walk ….. and shopping for groceries …. nothing exciting. Add in a whole load of admin and a smattering of housework and here I am at the end of the day without doing anything arty so I quickly scribbled Husb as he’s slobbing on the settee watching telly. I could have scribbled the cat but she’s not speaking to me because we had the small hairy bandy-legged Pomerpoo to stay for a few days. Ballpoint pen into my A6 Frida Kahlo themed sketchbook.

sketchbook

I didn’t get it because it’s Frida Kahlo themed but because it was really cheap in a TK Maxx sale and it’s very good quality.

The Bandy Legged Ball Of Fur

bandy furball

It’s so hot and humid with thunderstorms and downpours coming and going and we’re dog sitting for a couple of days so Husb and I are trying to take the small hairy one for walks in between the heavy showers. I followed behind the Pooch and the Husb this evening, scribbling into my sketchbook. I had to move fast to catch her as she ran about – she doesn’t do anything slowly. The more I scribbled her, the more I realised that not only is she very furry, she’s also quite bandy-legged. I think I was finally getting somewhere with the last sketch, bottom just right of centre, but I stopped then because I was shattered – it’s so much harder exercising in this weather. The dog is a Pomerpoo ( a Pomeranian Poodle cross) and I drew her with a ballpoint pen.

Not Just Faking And Baking

fake and bake

I’ve been looking at my blog posts over the past few months and it looks as if I spend most of my time baking or faking (with the Cheese and Wine Painting Club on Fridays) or drawing trees. But behind the scenes I’ve been carrying on with my pandemic-inspired project which involves, in the first stage, carving around 100 little lino blocks. Well frankly, that’s interesting to blog about occasionally but it would be pretty boring if that’s what I posted day in, day out. So I’ll just drop it in now and again.

Columbian

This morning I was at Swansea Print Workshop, we’re starting a slow and measured re-opening with no more than two artists at any one time, masked and sanitised. I get to hang out with this big beast – The Columbian 😀

Baking And Sketching

8 Cwmdonkin

Another evening walk, another sketch in Cwmdonkin Park. There are plenty of trees so I’m in no danger of running out of subjects any time soon. There are lots more people in the park now that lockdown is easing.

 

bread

Earlier, I made bread. And pizza, but that got eaten before I could take a photo.

Faking It Slowly

fields 3

I dropped into Facebook’s Wine and Cheese Painting Club on Friday, to practice and improve my skills. It looks like a fairly simple work but it’s surprisingly complex, with loads of layering, stippling the colours over each other.  It’s going to be a long job. This is what I managed in the hour and a half session but I reckon there’s another 4 hours at least. I didn’t get a chance to work on it through the weekend, today’s fine weather was perfect for a couple of hours down the allotment, followed by a few in the garden. A hot sweaty job. Got loads done though. So this fake is going to have to wait until tomorrow.

I use Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic paints and Daler Rowney brushes.

I also got a cracking charity buy yesterday, from the Cats Protection shop. I love spiders. Always have, ever since I was little and got a liking for the little critters running up my arms – it tickles.

spider brooch

 

Fair Pay, Cake And Unicorn Sprinkles

NHS Demo

Husb and I went to our local ‘Support the NHS’ demonstration earlier today, highlighting the unfairness of wages for those that only very recently were being clapped and praised by the government. It was well organised, with people being responsible, maintaining a distance, wearing masks, using sanitiser. Demos are always a good opportunity to sketch crowds, not something I find easy because there’s perspective, proportion and people moving around to deal with.

It isn’t fair that people working in health and social care can earn so little. We’d be screwed without them. Demonstrators brought flowers to lay at the foot of the flagpole outside the Guildhall to commemorate NHS workers who have died of Covid19 over the past few months.

Chelsea cake 21

On a happier note, our eldest great niece is 21 today so Husb and I made her a birthday cake – I did the cake, he did the icing. Four layers of rich chocolate almond cake sandwiched and decorated with chocolate buttercream icing, fresh fruit and unicorn sprinkles on the top. She’s got a thing about unicorns.

Sunflowers Of The Damned

1a Rhosili

People sometimes ask me if I could do them a ‘nice landscape’. My answer to that is that I don’t do a nice anything. Husb and I went down to Rhossili Bay this evening to see the field of sunflowers and I drew them with charcoal into my Khadi sketchbook. The flowers are beautiful, bright and colourful but I chanelled my inner German Expressionist and ended up with the sunflowers of the damned.

1 Rhosili

There was strange weather as well. It was really sunny when we left the city but by the time we reached the beach the cloud had dropped out of the sky and covered the headland and Worm’s Head and created a very odd effect in the sky. It was our first proper trip since lockdown began. We’ve been going walking most days and working our allotment but we haven’t been ‘out out’, although it’s less than 20 miles.