An Overlooked Destination.

I went to the opening of a lovely exhibition for International Women’s Day, at Cynon Valley Museum in Aberdare. The show is called ‘Women & The Valleys: The Valleys’ Daughters’ , curated by Karin Mear and runs until 30th March 2025. I submitted my screenprint, “Smiling and Splendid” inspired by the Miner’s Wives struggle of 1984/1985. The gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday, 9.30 – 3.30. The South Wales Valleys are often overlooked as a destination to visit, which is a pity because there’s a lot there, culturally and historically.

Shaft Of Spring Sunshine.

I started to carve into my large lino block this afternoon and a shaft of Spring sunshine glowed across the room and onto my work space. The strong shadow made the cutting difficult, but I thought it made a good photo. I’m using a Flexcut gouge and traditional grey, hessian-backed lino.

Sketchbook Archives: 27

Back in May 2013, I visited the USA to do a residency at Wingtip Press in Boise, Idaho. Here are some of my sketches from that visit. It was a fascinating journey, Idaho is the Wild West and the culture and geography are so different to the UK. I’m used to wet Wales and Boise is extremely dry.

Drawing Details.

Over the past few days I’ve been carving details of my new Mari Lwyd linocut design into a small piece of lino to see how they work out, so now I’ve started drawing details onto my full size block. There’s a way to go yet though before I start carving…


#Caturday Silhouette 15: Stripey!

It’s #Caturday Saturday again and here’s a negative silhouette of Bill aka William ChatNoir, out little black rescue cat. She’s very sweet.

Ribbons And Bells.

I’m carrying on cutting my practice piece, carving some bells and ribbons that will adorn the head of the Mari Lwyd. The bells are quite a challenge.

I’m using Flexcut tools kept sharp with a Slip Strop into traditional grey hessian-backed lino. I drew directly onto the lino with a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen, working from a photo of my own Mari Lwyd.

Blooded Myself…Again!

I’ve cut the little eye of the Mari Lwyd, a practice run for my next large-ish linocut. I’m using traditional grey, hessian-backed lino and Flexcut tools and a Slip Strop to keep them sharp. I blooded myself today! Still do it after all these years!

Sketchbook Archives: 26

Here are some heads from May 2013. Three are from my sketchbooks, one is charcoal over a discarded cyanotype print, one chalk over an ink splash, and one full colour monotype. I think I like drawing people’s faces more than any other thing.

A Bit At A Time…

I’ve made a start on my next Mari Lwyd lino block, but instead of carving straight onto the full size block, I’m trying out different bits of the design on smaller lino blocks, to see how they work out. First up, is the Mari’s eyeball, quite a mischievous eye, but some find her quite sinister.

#Caturday (Plus 1) Silhouette 14: Size Matters!

My laptop finally gave up the ghost a couple of days ago, I’d had it about 10 years and it was geriatric. And now it’s properly dead. So I missed blogging for a couple of days but I now have a new laptop and here’s this week’s #Caturday, a day late but better late than never. I’ve overlaid Bill’s positive silhouette onto a pastel sketch I did of Swansea from Waun Wen Park a few years ago.

My new laptop has 16 Gigabytes of RAM and a One Terabyte SSD (Solid State Drive). Oooh get me! Size matters y’know!