Big Stone, Little Stone

Llandrhydian

This is the final drawing I made on my megalith hunt on the north Gower Peninsula on Wednesday, travelling with prehistorian Dewi Bowen and filmmaker Melvyn Williams. The peaceful village green boasts two standing stones, two pubs and a Norman church, as well as spectacular views over the north Gower coast. The large conglomerate Upper Stone had been Christianised in the past into a wheel-shaped Celtic cross which was then broken. The Lower Stone was erected in its present spot in 1846 after it was found lying nearby.

I have put my series of drawings of ancient Welsh monuments on Artfinder.  If you want to see more, please click on the image below or the Artfinder link at the top right of this page. This one is the legendary grave of Saint Elfys (Elvis) in Pembrokeshire, not for from the Prescelli Mountains. Elfys? Prescelli? Elvis Presley? Coincidence? hhhmmmm

St Elvis

Vikings, Lepers and Wild Flowers

Leper Stone

I went out drawing with a prehistorian and a filmmaker yesterday, down to the little church in the village of Llanrhidian on The Gower Peninsula. There’s an enormous carved stone in the church porch, The Leper Stone, fairly modern, only about twelve hundred years old. Of course, I had to scribble it. I drew with white, sanguine and black conté crayon onto a piece of paper prepared with my home-made walnut ink. The stone might be Viking, or it might be Irish.

flowers

The churchyard was awash with beautiful wild flowers, primrose (primula vulgaris), celandine (ficaria verna), daisy (bellis perennis), dandelion (taraxacum officinale) and lady’s smock (cardamine pratensis). It made a change from deep, thick mud.

 
I have put my series of drawings of ancient Welsh monuments on Artfinder.  If you want to see more, please click on the image below or the Artfinder link at the top right of this page. This one is the legendary grave of Saint Elfys (Elvis) in Pembrokeshire, not for from the Prescelli Mountains. Elfys? Prescelli? Elvis Presley? Coincidence? hhhmmmm

St Elvis

Priapus And Placentas

Priapus

Back on the trail of ancient megaliths with prehistorian Dewi Bowen and filmmaker Melvyn Williams, with my portable drawing board, a folder full of prepared papers and a satchel of drawing materials. We headed out to the Gower Peninsula and pitched up at this magnificent large stone near Weobley Castle. Called Samson’s Jack, or Mansel’s Jack, Dewi described it as “big and priapic” but pointed out that some of its priapic features are now hidden by a thick hedge and barbed wire fence. I found a vantage point to draw from and stepped back into something very squelchy. I’m used to squelchy because the Welsh countryside is covered in many and varied manures rendered squelchy by constant rain, but this was a new variety of squelchiness, it was sheep placenta. There was a lot of it around because the field was home to lots of heavily pregnant and birthing sheep and tiny newborn lambs. I carried on drawing. I’m not put off by squelch and did this drawing with conté crayons and Daler Rowney artist quality soft pastels.

 

I have put my series of drawings of ancient Welsh monuments on Artfinder.  If you want to see more, please click on the image below or the Artfinder link at the top right of this page. This one is the legendary grave of Saint Elfys (Elvis) in Pembrokeshire, not for from the Prescelli Mountains. Elfys? Prescelli? Elvis Presley? Coincidence? hhhmmmm

St Elvis

Proper Old School

transferring sketch

I dropped by the studio of fellow artist Carys Evans today and we talked about how we work from drawings and preparatory sketches of models – proper old school. I don’t often paint but I have a go now and again and here’s one I made a start on a while back. The original drawing was done in my sketchbook at a life drawing session at Swansea Print Workshop and I’ve finished transferring the image using a thin black oil wash onto a canvas sheet that I’d tinted with a sepia-ish colour. I suppose I’d better finish it then.

 

I have put my series of drawings of ancient Welsh monuments on Artfinder.  If you want to see more, please click on the image below or the Artfinder link at the top right of this page. This one is the legendary grave of Saint Elfys (Elvis) in Pembrokeshire, not for from the Prescelli Mountains. Elfys? Prescelli? Elvis Presley? Coincidence? hhhmmmm

St Elvis

Drawing With Liquid Silk  

I was out this evening, giving a talk to the lovely people at the Porth Cawl art group and some of them were interested in how I made my home-made walnut ink, so here it is again. It’s definitely worth doing if you can get your hands on a few walnut fruits, not the nuts, the greeny, apply fruit around the nut is what’s needed. It’s a lovely ink to use, like drawing with liquid silk.

 

Source: Walnut Husk Ink Revisited

Taking It Further….

I’ve been thinking about how artwork develops from my original sketches.

pak2

I always carry a sketchbook and have dozens and dozens stuffed into cupboards with thousands of sketches done over the years and most stay locked away. But occasionally I find something that inspires me to use some of them as the basis for new work, usually some form of printmaking. About 3 years ago I was fortunate enough to visit Pakistan for a month as a resident artist at the Zaira Zaka Print Studio near Rawalpindi. On a crazy car journey from Rawalpindi to Lahore on my birthday in the worst storm I’ve ever seen, I sat in the back of the car and scribbled with my Daler Rowney pastels into a Khadi handmade paper sketchbook, capturing speedy impressions of the ever-changing atmospheric landscape as we drove. When I came back I edited the drawings into a video (below).

 

I also took the sketches into the studio at Swansea Print Workshop and started to work on small full-colour monotypes; if you want to find out more about my technique, please click here.

 

 

I have put my series of drawings of ancient Welsh monuments on Artfinder.  If you want to see more, please click on the image below or the Artfinder link at the top right of this page.

St Elvis

Running Out Of Time

specs 3

I try to get along to life drawing sessions at Swansea Print Workshop as often as possible as drawing underpins everything I do artistically and I need to practice. This is a fab model, she’s excellent and I love to draw her. Unfortunately, even the most experienced models can get a dead leg and that’s what happened this week, so I wasn’t able to finish the drawing. But never mind, I like the unfinishedness of it. I drew with white, sanguine and black conté crayons, in that sequence, onto brown wrapping paper.

 

 

I have put my series of drawings of ancient Welsh monuments on Artfinder.  If you want to see more, please click on the image below or the Artfinder link at the top right of this page.

St Elvis

A Stiff Leg

ten minutes

Just back from Swansea Print Workshop’s weekly life drawing, it’s late and I’m tired. Our model got tired too, her leg went stiff and painful after about 40 minutes so we spent the last 10 minutes doing a quick pose that didn’t hurt her leg. I like it. It’s drawn with white and sanguine conté crayon onto brown wrapping paper.

Blast From The Past….

elephant

Another blast from the past, from The Bagpuss Window, a semi-derelict artspace set up by Melanie Ezra and myself about 18 months ago. It only lasted 3 weeks but we, and lots of other artists and performers, did loads of arty stuff. Swansea Print Workshop lent us a portable etching press so I got stuck in with some paper drypoint plates and produced a small edition based on a little sketchbook drawing I did during my residency in Pakistan a couple of years ago.

Filmmaker Melvyn Williams made some short videos of what we got up to – here are a couple …..

First off, performance poet Rhys Trimble jamming with gong artist David Pitt.

 

And a quick blast of me…..

 

I have put my series of drawings of ancient Welsh monuments on Artfinder.  If you want to see more, please click on the image below or the Artfinder link at the top right of this page.

St Elvis

Drypoint Etching using a Cuttlebug Die Cutting Machine

Source: Drypoint Etching using a Cuttlebug Die Cutting Machine