My Creative Other Half …. Again ….

faux glass 3

Husb has been using this newfound “leisure” time to get creative and has made a faux stained glass panel for the skylight about our hallway door. He did the geometric faux stained glass on the door itself some years back, with perspex, sticky-backed plastic and stick-on lead strip. All the geometric stuff is his, but the real stained glass panel of the standing stone has been made by local artist Deanne Mangold from Class Glass.

faux glass 2

Deanne based her design on an original mixed media piece I did out in the field, literally, of an ancient standing stone in Dinas, Pembrokeshire, a couple of years ago.

original

My Creative Other Half

Faux glass 1

I was out and about in the city centre for most of today, shopping from the excellent Swansea Market and local grocers, who had plenty of food. So many people are going to supermarkets and ignoring small, local shops and markets, which is a shame because locally they have plenty of most things. And there’s the lovely smell of food cooking in the Market, from the cafes still open and serving hot meals (that they’re now offering to deliver), to the bakers making fresh Welsh cakes on hot griddles. There are a lot of homeless people in temporary Bed and Breakfast accommodation in the city; they have to go out during the day so it’s great that they can go and get hot food in the market.

I bought some laverbread from the Market for tea …

 

laverbread

 

Anyway, while I was out, it was Husb’s turn to get creative and he made a faux stained glass panel, from coloured plastic sheets and a roll of self-adhesive lead strip. It was dark outside when he installed it so I’ll have to wait for daylight to get a photo and blog about it. Tomorrow ….

 

The Beginnings Of An Idea

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Creative ideas come from all over the place. My Aunty got my Husb a bottle of Tomato Ketchup with Garlic from The Garlic Farm on the Isle of Wight, he loves it and she likes giving him presents. Anyway, as he unwrapped it I squealed in delight at the packaging! Lovely brown cardboard cut into patterns. It’s calling out to me!

Scanned it, Photoshopped it, had a play with it, got some ideas forming. I think it’s heading towards a screen print ………..

Let’s Have Some Trees!

Drawing 3

Let’s have a break from viruses and pandemics and look at some trees because trees are nice. I drew these in the grounds of Dinefwr country park near Llandeilo a while back, using conte crayons in black, white and sanguine. The one above is a brown paper sketchbook from Seawhite’s of Brighton, the one below I prepared by sticking brown parcel paper into a white sketchbook with a Pritt stick.

Drawing 2

 

 

Force of Nature 2

West Pier 2

Here’s another sketch I did at Swansea’s wrecked West Pier yesterday. Storms Ciara, Dennis and Jorge managed to destroy it and the sand dunes have now started leaching into the mouth of the River Tawe …. who knows what will happen? There used to be an island out there centuries ago. Legend has it that Vikings landed there under the leadership of Sven and the island was called Sven’s Ey (Island); the name morphed over time into Swansea. The Welsh name for our city is Abertawe – the mouth of the River Tawe.

Force of Nature 1

West Pier 1

Husb and I took a stroll along the beach this afternoon to the West Pier at the mouth of the River Tawe. It was recently badly damaged during the triumvirate of storms – Ciara, Denis and Jorge and it’s shocking how nature has ripped huge amounts of concrete apart and splintered vast wooden piles like matchsticks. A massive amount of sand dune has been eroded as well, creating a stretch of new sandy cliff face and dumping tons of sand into the river mouth. This drawing, in conte crayons (black and sanguine) with water rubbed on with  my finger, reminds me of drawings I’ve seen of the Swansea blitz.

 

 

#Caturday

sunlight

It’s #Caturday! Here’s a #Cat. In the sunlight.

That’s How I Roll

bedwyr williams

So I went to the Glynn Vivian art gallery this evening for a talk by the artist Bedwyr Williams. I sat at the back because there was a light on there in the otherwise dark room and I though “Ah, I can use that light to draw into my small but perfectly formed sketchbook.” Just as I started a scribble, the artist asked for the light to be turned off so I was left in pitch darkness. But I carried on drawing. Because that’s how I roll.

 

Hats Indoors

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This is getting to be a recurring theme, with the cold and very wet winter and I suspect, commercial premises turning the heating down a degree or two. Here are two of the people listening to artist talks at the Elysium Gallery and Bar this evening, given by Mark Folds and Bourdon Brindille. They were discussing their current exhibitions, “Crises” and “Breakage and Repair”, both excellent, clever, well made, interesting and with a bit of humour. The shows run until April 18th and are worth a look if you’re in Swansea. The Gallery bar and cafe also serves hot food, home cooked and really tasty.

Woodcut in the bog

This is a great visual blog from artist Patti McKenna Jones

pattimcjones's avatarPATRICRAFT

One of the ‘bloody women’ I’m paying tribute to in the upcoming exhibition at Cinema & Co Swansea is Andrea Levy. I was impressed and depressed by her novel ‘Small Island’ (about the unbelievable levels of discrimination meted out to the Windrush despite them being invited to live in the UK after WW2) when I read it 10 years ago. She admitted to developing a flinty bloody- mindedness in order to get published in her final interview -released on R4 recently & really worth a listen. Here is the woodcut of her beautiful face in progress but you’ll have to pop into the toilet in C&Co to see the finished print….

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