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Greetings Humans

Greetings Humans. Sparta Puss here. I managed to get my paws on the furless she-ape’s pooter box while she’s washing my food bowls. And preparing my supper. And brushing excess fur from my favourite blankie. And going down the road to the hunting ground called the supermarket to hunt for my kitty biscuits. She’s a lazy mare!

Anyhoo, I was lying around on my second favourite blankie earlier and the female monkey was fiddling about with a stick with dirty stuff in it called a biro pen and she was moving it around and around on a bit of paper while staring at me. I like it when the hairless simians stare at me – it shows proper respect. Then she showed me all the bits of dirt on the paper and said it’s me! She’s an idiot.

Here I am reclining with the she-ape’s thing with paper in it. She calls it a sketchbook. It has cats over it. They don’t look as good as I do.

Wo/Man Buns

woman bunz

I was sitting on the bus to our local hospital to visit a relative this evening and a young man and woman sat in front of me. They were dressed in similar clothes and had identical hairstyles. Both had longer hair on top, drawn up into a bun, and shaved close to the head below. Both had pierced ears, the young woman had inserts about the size of a 10p piece while the young man’s were smaller and both had other piercings along their ears and in their noses. My late Dad would have said “Can’t tell the girls from the boys these days” but he said that back in the 1970s when I used to wear jeans, boots and a leather jacket and rode a motorbike, which he seriously disapproved of. There’s a lot of fuss about ‘gender fluidity’ lately but it isn’t really any different to our adulation in the ’70s for David Bowie and Marc Bolan, who pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in male fashion and style. The sky didn’t fall on our heads back then and it won’t now.

City Of Poetic Culture

Husb and I went to The Hyst in Swansea’s High Street this evening for a poetry showcase put on by Swansea City Of Culture 2017. I’m not usually drawn to poetry but these performers were fantastic – Rufus Mufasa, Clare Ferguson-Walker, Gwion Iqbal Malik, Julia Manser and Karl Beer. Of course, I had a scribble, like you do…..

Another Life Drawing (Female Nude)

Here’s the second study I did at life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop in the week. I worked on my Samsung Galaxy Note 8 using a free app called Markers. I put in a black ground to start with and then worked on top with white and coloured pen functions. It’s a different approach to normal and it helped me to focus on different elements of the model, working more with highlights than my usual linear style.

Hanging With Camille Claudel

I’m exhibiting at “The Uncredited Woman” at Llanover Hall in Cardiff CF5 1FH until December 8th. Here I am at the opening of the Women’s Arts Association annual show, with the work I submitted, a screenprint of the French sculptor Camille Claudel. I used the liquid stencil method to prepare the screen, working from one of my drawings of her. If you want to find out more about the process, please click here.

Just Back (Female Nude)

I’m just back from life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop, working this week with a super middle-aged female model who has great presence. I was reading a blog about the relationship between artists and models by fellow artist Michael Richards earlier today, where he explores the collaboration between the two. It’s a good read. I really appreciate what the models bring to the creative experience. I don’t always get inspired by a model or a particular session, the actual drawing practice is also important to me. But sometimes a model, or even a pose, triggers off something inspirational. This was a quick drawing onto my Samsung Galaxy Note 8 tablet using a free Markers app.

The Last Experiment (for now)

I’ve been experimenting doing monotypes on a gel plate from Gelli Arts, trying out different inks and paints over the last week or so. I’ve finished for the time being, ending up with Caligo Safe Wash oil-based printing inks. I used Process Yellow, Magenta and Cyan mixed approximately 50:50 with the brand’s Extender for translucency and to make it easier to roll. It gave good coverage over the gel plate, held texture well, printed with vibrant colours and also produced a decent ‘ghost’ (secondary) print.

The first roll, Process Yellow and Process Magenta

Then on with the Process Cyan and more bubble wrap, adding some ripped paper stencils to mask out areas

The final print with excellent coverage and colours ….

I’ve tried out 6 different inks / paints, all printed in two layers onto Daler Rowney cartridge paper (90gsm). I think the best for my own professional use are the Caligo Safe Wash oil-based printing ink and the Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic paint.

For teaching, I would be happy to use both the Essdee and the Seawhites of Brighton water-based printing inks. And the other 2 media I used, Winsor & Newton Galeria acrylic paint and Liquitex acrylic inks were both too liquid to give satisfactory results on this brand of gel plate, so I’ll be keeping them for other projects.

Proud Pads

I spent a lovely morning helping fellow Swansea artist and designer, Laura Niehorster, in her new enterprise, Proud Pads. Laura needed a hand cutting out the material to make a new batch of her eco-friendly re-usable sanitary pads. I think it’s a brilliant idea and they look really fun and funky too.

You can catch up with what Laura is doing here and click here to find out about market testing Proud Pads.

Hydrangea

https://wp.me/pFqe5-NQ

Reblogged from David Reid, a delightful little work

Jelly And Liquitex

So, still experimenting with the Gelli Arts plate, this time trying out Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic paint. It gives excellent coverage and takes textures really well. Almost all the ink comes off onto the paper – Daler Rowney cartridge 90gsm – with gentle rubbing, leaving very little for a ‘ghost’ print. The only problem I think is that the colours are very intense, it’s high quality paint, and I either need to experiment with more subtle methods of removing and blending the paint on the plate or find some sort of medium to thin out the intensity of the colour without making the paint more watery.