Rhubarb!

17-rhubarb

I picked the first rhubarb of the season yesterday. It’s the earliest I’ve ever picked it, it’s out in the open garden, I don’t force my rhubarb to bring it on early. I guess it’s the relatively warm and wet winter we’ve had.

rhubarb

I did a drawing eight years ago just as the rhubarb was starting to come through the ground – it’s almost three weeks later than the thick robust stems I picked over the weekend.

rhubarb-crumble

 

Then I made a crumble. Husb had it with lashings of custard. I don’t eat rhubarb. It has it’s original ancient medicinal effect on me – a laxative!

Welsh Cakes For Saint David’s Day

welsh cakes a

Today is Dydd Gwyl Dewi Sant, or Saint David’s Day, here in Wales, a day of tradition and celebration and one of our finest traditions is Welsh food. I cooked some Welsh Cakes – or Pice ar y Maen (little cakes on the bakestone). Here’s a recipe if you want to try them. I used dairy free, vegetarian spread instead of animal fat to cook mine.

welsh cakes

I have a very traditional cast iron Maen (griddle or bakestone) that I’ve had for over 40 years now and I think it’s the best thing to cook Welsh cakes on – they are part of a long history, possibly thousands of years, of cooking over an open fire. Welsh cakes and similar griddle cakes would have been cooked this way for many generations. And they’re perfect with a nice cup of tea.

 

A Benchmark Of Home

Benchmarks 2

I went to the opening of the new  exhibitions at Elysium this afternoon. The larger gallery is devoted to work by the resident artist Mark Folds, called Crises, while the smaller gallery has three large-scale pieces made by members of Crisis, the homelessness charity, called “Benchmarks”.

Benchmarks 3

Mark has been working with five people who have experienced homelessness, using materials usually associated with home – wood, benches, carpets, beds – to produce these life size artworks.  

Benchmarks 1

 

The title of this show, Benchmarks, means something that serves as a standard by which we measure or judge others. And other people are often very quick to judge those who are or have been homeless. But also, homeless people are often not noticed, are hidden, are ignored because so many others are complacent about it.

Benchmarks 4

Crisis is an organisation that recognises the importance of creative activities in helping people to move into a stable lifestyle, supporting many creative tutors across the UK in visual arts, crafts, music and creative writing. and recognising how the arts can be used to educate people and improve skills as well as offering people something to do with their time.

The exhibition runs until April 18th at 210, High Street SA1 1PE.

Scribbling In The Book Shop

waterstones cafe 2020

 

I spent today doing lots of little bits of stuff, catching up with things I’ve been needing to do. One thing I’ve neglected for a while is sketchbook scribbling so I called into Waterstones cafe on my way home for a nice cup of tea and a relaxed scribble. It’s one of my favourite places for chilling and sketching; it’s been converted from the old Carlton cinema which is a beautiful building, inside and out.

The Final Touch

finished

 

The mixed media print I’ve been working on for the past couple of weeks is now finished! I did the final touches this evening. “Dragon’s Revenge” is designed by Jamie Reid and commissioned by GS Artists and is a combination of archival digital print (the pale blue background and the word DRAGONS), screenprint (the red Welsh dragon and the blue Saint George), lino cut (the word REVENGE) and a separate digital print (the words MAE HEDDWCH YN GALED).

I collaged the final pieces this evening. It’s great to see an artwork in two languages; Mae Heddwch Yn Galed means Peace Is Hard.

 

dragons-revenge

 

An exhibition of the political works of anarchic artist Jamie Reid, is at GS Artists on Swansea’s High Street until March 1st.

 

 

Onto The Next Block ……

herstory 1a

As one art project comes to an end, the next one gets started. I’m cutting a new little lino block – something for International Womens’ Day #IWD2020 . I’m using hard brown lino and I’ll fix the block to a stamp base that I bought in the Modular store in Berlin a while back.

And here’s a very short video of me finishing printing my last little lino block on my antique Sampson Mordan & Co press. It’s a gorgeous chunk of cast iron with lush Victorian styling and rather Steampunk.

 

 

This little block in the video is part of a print I am editioning, designed by Jamie Reid for GS Artists, who are showing an exhibition of his radical art in Swansea at the moment.

 

dragons-revenge

Nearly There…

almost there

 

I used my sweet little antique press today to carry on printing a little lino block.

Here’s a closer view of the cast iron press, which is probably early Victorian and made in London, by Sampson Mordan & Co. These are often called bookbinding or nipping presses but it’s possibly one of the very first Fax (Facsimile) machines, advertised at the time as a “letter copying press”.

Press

 

This little block is part of a print I am editioning, designed by Jamie Reid for GS Artists, who are showing an exhibition of his radical art in Swansea at the moment.

 

dragons-revenge

A Sharp Tool And A Strop

stamp 1

When I’m cutting blocks for printmaking, whether it’s lino, vinyl, wood or foamboard it’s vitally important to keep my tools sharp. Once a tool goes blunt it’s a dickens of a job to sharpen it again. Sharpening your tools as you work slows you down a bit but it is more efficient than sharpening tools from scratch. I use Flexcut tools and the Flexcut strop system to keep them sharp. Here’s a short video of my sharpening strop in action.

 

 

 

This little block is part of a print I am editioning, designed by Jamie Reid for GS Artists, who are showing an exhibition of his radical art in Swansea at the moment.

 
dragons-revenge

Messy!

printing 1

I’m onto the messy stages of screenprinting now … squeegeeing ink through the stencil on the silk mesh on to the paper below. I’m almost half way through the edition, hope to have it finished by the end of the week.

printing 2

 

Here’s a short video of me using the vacuum screenpress to print the image at Swansea Print Workshop.

 

 

I’m developing an edition of mixed media prints for GS Artists from an original by Jamie Reid. There is a great exhibition of his work running until March 1st and here’s some more info about the show and the prints, which will be in a limited edition of 75.

dragons-revenge

Step By Step

knight screen

 

Building a screenprint step by step. It’s a lot of processes and each one has to be exact and tried out as a trial proof at each stage. Here’s the photoscreen of the little knight (above) and here he is printed in cobalt blue (below). I’m happy with the little chap.

 

knoght

 

I’m developing an edition of mixed media prints for GS Artists from an original by Jamie Reid. There is a great exhibition of his work running until March 1st and here’s some more info about the show and the prints, which will be in a limited edition of 75.

dragons-revenge