Walk And Draw

Rose 1

I did a fifteen kilometre walk last Saturday, along the Tawe River path, from Sainsburys in Swansea to Tescos in Pontardawe. It’s really impressive how the path has been extended and improved over the past few years. There were loads of people using it too, walkers, cyclists, runners and people fishing. I did some ‘walk and draw’ sketching along parts of it, using compressed charcoal and chalk into an A4 ring-bound brown paper sketchpad. This is my first field trip for the FIRE Lab project at Swansea University…..more to come about that …..

The Children’s Choir

Mayor 3

I did four sketches at the inauguration of the new Lord Mayor of Swansea a couple of days ago. I did a couple in ballpoint pen into an A6 hardbacked sketchbook and a couple of larger ones in conté crayon into an A4 brown paper pad. It’s challenging doing interiors with people, getting the perspective and proportions right and coping with people moving around all the time. There’s something to be said for working from photographs.

 

 

The main image shows a view of the choir of primary school children who performed three songs, including the beautiful Welsh language hymn, “Calon Lan“. It never fails to bring a lump to my throat, it’s so poignant.

More Mayor Making

Mayor 2

Here’s another sketch I did at Swansea’s mayor-making ceremony yesterday. I worked quickly onto a tinted heavyweight vintage paper with conté crayons in black, white and sanguine and also used a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen, size B.

Making The Mayor

Mayor 1

Had a really busy day today but managed to do lots of scribbling. Husb and I were invited to the mayor-making ceremony at Swansea’s Guildhall (a beautiful building, but that’s another story). It was very formal in some ways, but also warm and friendly. The inauguration happened in the council chamber, an imposing room full of wooden panels and columns and artworks by Frank Brangwyn up around the ceiling. I did this sketch into my A6 sketchbook using a ballpoint pen. I’m not too keen on drawing interiors and architecture, I prefer to draw people, but they were too far away to draw them with any detail.

 

More Voyeurism

Brynmill Park

Carrying on with the theme of yesterday’s blog post of the artist as voyeur, I did some “Walk And Draw” in the park today as I was walking home, hastily scribbling away into my little A6 sketchbook with a ballpoint pen. Trouble is, the park was full of much younger people who walk a lot faster and I had to rush to keep up which made my drawings even more scribbly than normal. But I like it.

The Artist As Voyeur

block 456

I often draw in the street, lurking in doorways or sitting surreptitiously on benches in public spaces, scribbling away. Sometimes I take photos and work from them later. I took some from a second floor window and transferred the drawings to polycarbonate blocks, which I carved then printed. I like these figures from such an acute angle.

Fast Woman

A thought provoking and beautifully drawn artblog from Patti McJones  via Fast Woman

Variations On A Theme

male back drawing colour

There’s often a temptation to keep doing something new, to keep chasing novelty, when you’re an artist. But really there’s nothing wrong with returning to the same subject or even the same drawing again and again to explore different ways of developing it.

male back drawing large

I started this series with a very small ink drawing (bottom), then did a much larger drawing in graphite and finally a mixed-media piece in acrylic, graphite and oil-bars.

male back drawing

Reflections from the first ‘What is Water?’ event

A fascinating SciArt project just getting underway in Swansea

Ideas Gratefully Received

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Husb and I went to an event this evening hosted by Urban Foundry about “We Make Good Happen” featuring its founder Matt Callanan who set up a kindness project to bring people together to do good for other people. He became well known for leaving ten pound notes in public with a note asking the finder to use the tenner to do some good. It’s become a very big movement in the UK. At the end of the session, some of us found a tenner taped to the underneath of our chairs, a tenner to be used to do some good. I was one of the lucky ones, but I’m not sure what to do with it. Any ideas gratefully received. Thanks 🙂