Motivation

Pop Art Head 1

I work part-time for a charity for people who are homeless, delivering art and craft sessions in different venues across the city. It’s much easier to engage people in crafts than in fine art, crafting seems to be more accessible and less threatening. I try out different things to motivate people who don’t think that they can paint or draw or sculpt to engage with art. I recently ordered a stencil book,  bought in some small square canvasses and did a quick little stencil painting during today’s session. It certainly attracted a lot of attention.

Pop Art Head 2

I used a stencil brush to put on the basic image in black acrylic (Liquitex Heavy Body) and while it was drying I cleaned the stencil on a piece of blue kitchen towel with a wet-wipe. I really like the ethereal image that appeared on the towel. Then I added some brush strokes in light blue and orange to give it a 1960s Pop Art feel. It was very quick and showed people how they could think about using stencils and paint to create artwork for their new homes. It also taught people quite a bit about how to use paint, without them realising it. I’m not a big fan of painting but I really like the Liquitex, it’s very strongly pigmented and can be thinned out to use in translucent washes, as with the stripes, or used fairly impasto, as I did with the stencil.

 

WAM night June 2018

Drawn To Monotype

sleeping woman

I’ve been searching through my older work today. I do it from time to time because I find it helps me to analyse what I’m doing now. And also it reminds me what I have tucked away in my plans chest, often things I had forgotten.

SONY DSC

These two reminded me how crucial drawing is to my art practice. The first was done during the weekly life drawing session at Swansea Print Workshop. I liked the composition so much that I used it to develop this monotype, a technique I often use when I want to work in colour. I’ve never been particularly interested in painting, I’d rather use a printmaking process any day. You can find out more about this process in my Techie Stuff section here.

 

WAM night June 2018

Just a reminder about this night coming up fast in the Rhonddda Valley

The Net Shops

net sheds

Here’s a quick little sketch I did on my recent visit to Hastings. We walked along the sea front to the Old Town, which is a fishing village, and saw these odd, elongated dark wooden sheds. It turns out they’re net shops / sheds, the fishermen had limited space to hang their nets so built the sheds very high, three stories and painted black. There were also normal size sheds, also very dark wood, that sold the freshest of fish, landed that day. It is lovely to see a traditional industry dating back to the early 19th century still thriving.

Comfy Shoes

shoes

End of a long day, lots of family stuff and a visit to town and it’s hot and sticky and muggy so I’m slobbing out at home scribbling my comfy shoes into my little flower covered sketchbook.

sketchbook

It’s tiny and I’m using a biro (ballpoint) pen.

Kollwitz, Drypoint And Woodcut. What A Weekend!

Kollwitz stamp
A stamp based on a screen print I made from an original drawing of Kathe Kollwitz

Coming up, June 16th and 17th, I’ll be running a printmaking masterclass at Swansea’s gorgeous Glynn Vivian Art Gallery. Over the weekend we’ll focus on two print techniques, drypoint (intaglio) and woodcut, linked to the fabulous Käthe Kollwitz exhibition. Book now if you want to come as tickets are selling out fast….

 

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A digital drawing I did based on Kathe’s woodcut, The Widow.

On Day 1….

We’ll start with my illustrated talk about Käthe Kollwitz’s life and art (I’m a huge fan) and then we’ll go into the gallery to look at Käthe’s specific pieces that support drypoint and woodcut, the exquisite line of her etchings and the drama, chiaroscuro and simplicity of her woodcuts. We’ll make some quick sketches of her techniques.

After a tea break, off to the studio to look at individual work and start to transfer drawings to the drypoint plates and / or wood blocks and start cutting the images.

After lunch, we’ll continue cutting and prepare the paper for the next day and get our materials ready. This will be a chance for artists to chat about ideas, ask questions, get familiar with new materials and machinery.

 

On Day 2 ….

It’s all about the printing…. We’ll soak paper the paper, ink the plates and/or blocks, print a small edition for each artist and put them to dry. We’ll learn about ways of doing these print techniques at home; about signing and numbering an edition, why and how; and there will be handouts designed to help you to continue printmaking afterwards.

And all in the surroundings of the beautiful Glynn Vivian Art Gallery….

 

If you want to book onto the course, please click here … and if you want to read a bit more about Käthe, please click here and here.

W!A!M! At The Workers

WAM night June 2018

Coming up fast – Thursday June 7th at The Workers Gallery, Ynyshir from 7pm. There will be art (from me), film (from Melvyn Williams), prehistory (from Dewi Bowen), cake, chocolates (from Afan Vale) and there may even be music. All free. How can you miss this? If you haven’t visited this little gem of a gallery before, then make this your first time. It’s run by artists for artists and it’s just awesome and it’s Trip Advisor’s number 1 attraction in the Rhondda Valley and yet receives NO public funding. So please come and support it. The W!A!M! evenings are on the first Thursday of every month and are brilliant. Seriously. And I’m not just saying that because I’m in the next one. Honest 😉

Here’s a tiny preview of what to expect from Melvyn’s film ….

 

That Lightbulb Moment

light bulb

Husb and I stopped off for a nice cuppa tea and a flapjack (I do enjoy a moist flapjack) and I scribbled him quickly as he queued. He’s quite tall and was standing right underneath a glass light fitting and it looked a bit like one of those lightbulb moments in the comics when someone suddenly gets an idea.

 

Dracula In The Sun

2018 Tate Whitby

Husb and I spent the Bank Holiday visiting the North East of England, looking at places we’ve been meaning to see for years and finally got around to it. We dropped in on Whitby, home of  Whitby Jet jewellery ( I collected a few antique pieces back in the 1970s before it was fashionable) and the dramatic setting for Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The weather was fantastic, hot and sunny and there was a theatre group performing a fast and funny version of the story through the grounds of the magnificent Whitby Abbey.

I had to have a scribble. I quickly sketched in the abbey, with a Staedtler drawing pen, just before the performance started and did a quick Winsor & Newton watercolour wash, then over-sketched one of the actors. I didn’t do any more because we had to follow the actors all over the Abbey site.

Rainbows In Durham

 

Husb and I have been doing a mini tour of North East England over the Bank Holiday and visited the historic town of Durham yesterday, which was hosting a Pride festival. There were rainbows everywhere.  I had to have a scribble,  didn’t I? So I did a bit of pen and watercolour work en plein air. We were sat outside the Cathedral in the glorious sunshine looking across the green. There were hundreds of rainbow people, it was lovely.  When I was a child it was illegal to be gay (well, for men anyway). How far we have come, it’s brilliant.

I drew with a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen into my Tate Gallery ‘landscape’ sketchbook and then added washes with Winsor & Newton watercolour half pans.

A Holiday Quickie

Here’s a quick sketch, I’m on holiday and Internet access is almost non existent so I hope this uploads