The glamorous life of an artist – not! Recycling canvasses with gesso. There’s a lot of prep and hard work before anything ends up on a gallery wall.
The Haul
This year I entered the Leftovers IX print exchange, organised through Wingtip Press in Idaho, USA. It’s a great premise; use up all those lovely little leftover scraps of printmaking paper and produce a small edition of miniature prints; send them off to Boise, Idaho; wait a few months; get a dozen prints by other artists through the post to add to your art collection. A nice little haul.
I sent over an edition of my little Mari Lwyd linocut prints with chine collé.
Sheep to Yarn Experiment
A fascinating blog about one artist’s creative journey from watching sheep being sheared to making art from the wool that she created … and all the learning and processes on the way …
A few years ago (2016) I pondered and acted upon the question “how does one process wool and create yarn?” Thanks to several friends and lots of You Tube searches I set forth on the wool/yarn learning pathway. It’s taken several years and countless hours working with the Physical Therapist (not easy for my spine/back muscles) to reach the spinning stage. A month ago I took a local beginning spinning class which was essential since I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with a borrowed wheel. The process finally is creating yarn! Here are a few highlights from the journey thus far:
Waiting for shearing (Ewes, not the lambs)
Step 1: Have friends with sheep! Especially friends who grow sheep for meat and the wool can ends up composting or on Craigs List. The sheep require a yearly shearing in spring depending on when the lambs are born. This breed…
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The Huddle
Husb and I went to an event at the excellent Cinema & Co this evening, a showing of the Leonardo di Caprio documentary, “After The Flood”, organised by the Swansea Ecobricks Community. The film was really good, there was a pop-up kitchen provided by Goggi – gorgeous vegetable byriani with chick pea curry and a samosa. Of course, I had to have a scribble! These women were in a huddle so I caught them with a ballpoint pen in my little hardbacked A6 sketchbook.
The Menstrual Product Mambo
The #periodpositive campaign and the concept of period positivity started as a phrase coined by former head of PSHE, comedian and education researcher Chella Quint, grew into a campaign, a trademark, and then a charter programme. I saw her perform at Cinema & Co a few nights ago and she was hilarious. We got up and danced the Menstrual Product Mambo. Of course, I had to have a scribble.
Period Positive
I went to an event, A Bloody Good Night, at Swansea’s excellent independent art centre, Cinema & Co, a few evenings ago. It was organised by Swansea Takes On Period Poverty (STOPP) and it was their official launch party & fundraiser. There was a special performance from the brilliant bilingual singer Bronwen Lewis and themed cupcakes to buy. There was a large donation box for pads/ tampons/ liners which was overflowing with period products for the local food bank.
About STOPP:
Swansea Takes On Period Poverty (STOPP) was set up with an ambitious vision to make Swansea a ‘Period Positive’ city where menstrual products are freely available in all public facilities such as schools, libraries, community centres and other private businesses. They also exist to campaign politically on this issue as they believe ultimately towels, pads or other things like ‘mooncups’ should be free and that there should definitely be no ‘tampon tax’. They want to raise awareness of ‘plastic free periods’ and sustainable solutions, to improve education about periods and help to breakdown taboos around menstrual health and finally to support international efforts to end period poverty around the world. For more information and to find out how you can help please email stopp.campaign@gmail.com
The Penlan Cavalry rides again….
Some wonderful drawings en plein air from Swansea artist Patti McJones.
Just In Case….
I have been out on field trips up along the course of the River Tawe recently, with colleagues from Swansea University’s FIRE Laboratory project. We spent some time examining culverts under the road that runs alongside the Tawe near its source up in the Brecon Beacons. There were differences between the culverts; different plants, different environments, different creatures. Most of the stream beds were made up of plain grey stones but I came across this one, towards the end, which glowed with speckles of a vivid terracotta orange.
I pulled out a few pieces and rubbed them against a dry grey rock and the soft pigment marked the surface easily. I collected a few to bring back, checking them for little creatures, and then a threw a few coins into the stream, as a token to appease any Gwragedd Annwn who might be hanging out in the crystal waters. Just in case …..
Home Made Inks
I went to an event at the excellent GS Artists in Swansea’s High Street last weekend, featuring the artist Sarah Poland at the end of her recent residency. I loved her work, mostly on paper – some of it huge- and using her own home-made oak gall ink. It’s similar in colour and texture to my home-made walnut ink. Both inks are permanent and according to Sarah, oak-gall ink was used to write the Magna Carta and that was 800 years ago.
Of course I had to have a scribble.
Splodges Of Watercolour
I went to a birthday party in a fabulous garden in Llwynhendy last weekend and of course, I had to have a scribble. I sat near the pond as dusk was falling and did a very quick sketch with ballpoint pen into my A6 hardbound sketchbook. Then I added some splodges of watercolour. I didn’t have any black with me which is a pity because I needed to damp the colour down to reflect the atmosphere at dusk. I used Isabey brushes and Winsor & Newton artist quality watercolour paints.
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