This is the eleventh of my “Up Yer Nose” series of digital drawings. I start by taking a digital photo of my victims …. er …. volunteers …. then I look at the photo on my phone, resting on my knee, while I draw freehand into my Samsung Galaxy Note 8 using a free Markers app. I don’t download the photo into the app and then draw on top. I tried that once, years ago, and it looks weird. It takes away my interpretation and my style and just looks fake. And it doesn’t really teach me anything or give me valid practice. Drawing from scratch takes a lot longer but it’s more satisfying and I prefer the result.
Greetings apes. Sparta Puss here. The she-monkey that I share my house with has been cheating on me with a dog called Daisy. A DOG! They’re as smelly as apes and even more stupid.
Hello Bald Apes. Sparta Puss here. Those lazy trained monkeys of mine have left the pooter box alone AGAIN. They’re too busy watching the noisybox in the corner with stuff running around inside it. Sometimes there are squirrels inside the noisybox. I like that, but by the time I get around to taking a swipe at them, they’re gone. I look behind the noisybox for them, but they’re never there. I don’t know how they do it but the she-monkey said that squirrels are meant to be very intelligent. The man-ape disagrees. He got bit by a squirrel once and he hates them. She-monkey says it was his own fault. He offered a peanut to a squirrel and didn’t throw it on the floor, he kept hold of it and the stroppy squirrel bit his finger and he dropped the peanut and the squirrel grabbed the nut (it was a monkey nut coincidentally) and ran off. He said it was laughing and punching the air. I’m not sure that I believe him. He’s an idiot.
From left to right: Andrew Baldwin, Rose Davies, John Abell
Opening Friday 21st September from 17.30 to 20.00 and continuing 10.30 – 4.30 September 22nd to 29th EXCEPT Monday 24th.
Swansea Print Workshop, a hidden gem, is exhibiting original prints as part of “Nawr Yr Arwr / Now The Hero“, inspired by World War 1 artists Frank Brangwyn and Käthe Kollwitz with work by artist members alongside three featured Welsh printmakers:
Andrew Baldwin (Trefeglwys, Powys), etchings and mezzotints inspired by the World War 1 battlefield
And me! Rose Davies / Rosie Scribblah (Swansea), monotypes and etchings from “The Warrior”, a series from my 10 year working relationship with Captain David Williams, a serving soldier and life model, who also features in Nawr yr Arwr.
Here’s a short video of me and my model working on a new monotype for “Nawr Yr Arwr / Now The Hero”
Frank Brangwyn and Käthe Kollwitz were accomplished multidisciplinary artists, both lived and worked through World War 1, and both excelled in the medium of printmaking. Drawing inspiration from the wealth of print media in which they worked, including etching, woodcut and lithography, Swansea Print Workshop’s exhibition will respond to the rich visual wealth of the sumptuous Brangwyn panels and the recent Glynn Vivian Art Gallery exhibition of Käthe Kollwitz prints.
Yaay. I got my paws on the pooter box again! My trained monkeys are lolling around complaining that they’re feeling rough. They look rough. All the time. They’re not at all sleek and pretty like a cat. They came back very late last night. They went out to something called a gig, where lots of hairless apes jumped around shouting at a small group of other apes they said are called The Hayseed Dixies. How stupid. They should have been here with me. I am neglected!
So the hairless apes are out gallivanting tonight, going to see a band. That’s a bunch of bald monkeys who bang stuff and make a lit of noise. And the other furless simians bounce around for hours. Then they come home. How ridiculous. I shall stay on my cushion on the cushion on the cushion on the bed in the quiet. Like the sensible sentient being I am.
Deadline: September 30th 2018 – The Evening Standard Art Prize. No entry fee. UK residents. Digital entry.
Competitions for creatives can be controversial. Some have extortionate entry fees, some have the odds stacked against those who are not members of a particular arts organisation. But I’m happy to give the heads up to competitions that have a decent prize and don’t charge artists to enter.
The Evening Standard (it’s a British newspaper for my chums outside the UK) has teamed up with Hiscox on this and there’s a prize of £10,000 in cash, a lifetime National Arts Pass and one year’s Hiscox Fine Art Insurance for original artwork – click here to see the terms and conditions.
Greetings Hairless Apes. Sparta Puss here. My trained monkeys have left the pooter box unattended so I thought I’d give you the benefit of my wisdom. Even though I know it won’t be of much use, you’re just a bunch of simians, after all.
The idiot she-monkey, the one who does the scribbling, has been doing drawings of other monkeys, but at an odd position, up their noses. That’s how I see you lot most of the time, so it’s not odd to me. So she just did this one of me. I must say, I look much better from this angle than you bald monkeys. Here are the other ones she’s done so far, the ginger one’s making a decent attempt at growing fur….
Drawn with a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 using a free Markers app.
Yesterday I posted about the upcoming immersive art event in Swansea in September – Nawr yr Arwr / Now the Hero. I will be exhibiting some of the work I have been doing over the past decade with a young , now not so young, soldier who is also a life model. I’ve been looking through it all and it’s a big body of work. The starting point is life drawings, which I do most weeks at Swansea Print Workshop.
From the hundreds of drawings I have in sketchbooks and portfolios, I select some for development, usually into original prints. This one started as a pastel sketch on a canvas sheet and I developed it into a full-colour monotype (see my Techie section for how to do it). Very early on, I started to investigate the idea of The Warrior and this is reflected in the work I’ve done. This was done near the start of our working relationship and it’s called ,”The Warrior Turns To Face The Darkness“.
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