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And ….. Breathe ……

Finally, I’ve finished the artwork I’m putting into the International Women’s Day exhibition in Swansea’s Cinema & Co, opening Wednesday March 8th. It’s called WMD – Women of Many Dimensions. My piece is stitched Shiohara paper overstitched with printed images of Käthe Kollwitz forming the front part of a late nineteenth century corset..

W.M.D. (above) will feature wall-based artwork from 21 Welsh artists along with films, talks, food and performances and will be happening at Cinema & Co throughout March, along with other events in Swansea, which is actually quite a funky city.

The celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD) has been around for over a hundred years. Its roots were in the campaign to win votes for women and it was ratified by the United Nations in 1977 as a day for women’s equality and world peace.

I am putting 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.

Slow Selfie

Here I am looming in the background of the life drawing I did last night at Swansea Print Workshop. It’s a slow selfie. I always look so cross when I’m drawing. Ho hum.

I am putting 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.

A Grand Night Out

So there we were, Husb and I splashing through the torrential rain on the dark, sodden streets of Pontypridd, early evening, searching for somewhere to get some hot food fairly quickly because we were on our way to somewhere else. The only half decent place we could find was a chippy, so we sat in the warm, dry, plastic interior under fluorescent lights and scoffed our way through freshly made chips – mine with steak and kidney pie and chipshop gravy; Husb with chipshop chicken curry. Lush! Proper comfort food.

Then onto Pontypridd Heritage and Cultural Centre, which was down a lot of dark steps right by the swollen river in the dark, for a talk by prehistorian Dewi Bowen to the Pontypridd Historical Society on the Bronze Age Archaeology of the Glamorgan Uplands. Fascinating stuff. There’s Dewi above, in the dark with his illustrations on the projector. I had to have a scribble of course. All in all a grand night out……

I’ve been travelling across South Wales with Dewi and filmmaker Melvyn Williams regularly for the past year. Dewi is researching his new book, ‘Hunting The Wild Megalith’, based on the premise that the ancient Welsh legend, The Boar Hunt / Y Twrch Trwyth, from The Mabinogion, can be tracked across the sites of Neolithic monuments throughout the South Wales landscape and Melvyn is making a film of our journey. Here’s a short one he did late last year…..

I am putting 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.

Half Done

I’m half way there with my new piece; I’m making it for the IWD (International Women’s Day) exhibition coming up on March the 8th at Cinema & Co in Swansea. I’ve cut and stitched half the garment from Shiohara Japanese paper, I’ve stitched strips of prints I made with a rubber stamp based on a silkscreen print I did of Käthe Kollwitz – a hero of mine, I’ve stitched channels through the paper garment and now I’ve started threading aluminium armature wire through the channels to stiffen it. Half done, other half to finish……

I am putting 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.

A Darker Turn….

This full size portrait drawing is part of a much larger piece of ephemeral drawing I made back in Autumn 2015 when my fellow artist Melanie Ezra and I took over a semi-derelict shop in Swansea’s High Street and opened it up to other artists to see what happened – we called it ‘The Bagpuss Window’. I drew intuitively with little planning and as the three weeks went by the drawing took a darker turn.

I’m going to post some of the videos made of ‘The Bagpuss Window’ by Melvyn Williams over the next few blogs because I want to show some of the fab artists who came along and did art.

Here are two, Melanie Ezra and Jonathan Green …..

I am putting 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.

Making My Mind Up

I did a lot of work today on the new artwork I’m making for the W.M.D. exhibition coming up fast. It’s part of a corset that I’ve constructed in paper. I finished the cutting and sewing and now I’m ready to stitch strips of paper stamped with the image of German Expressionist artist, the late Käthe Kollwitz, who is a hero of mine.

BUT! I can’t decide. Should I sandwich the images in between the two pieces of the paper structure or should I stitch them to the top? I quite like the subtlety of the sandwiched ones but this is going to be exhibited in a venue that often has subdued lighting, so maybe I should go with the boldness of the images stitched on top? I’ll have to make my mind up tomorrow……

I am putting 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.

Making A Start

I’m making a start on a new piece of work for the International Women’s Day exhibition, W.M.D. (Women of Many Dimensions) opening at Cinema & Co on March 8th. Print and stitch inspired by an inspirational artist and one of my heroes, Käthe Kollwitz. I’m aiming for a work made from paper that doesn’t need to be shown in a frame, but can still hang on a wall.

W.M.D. (above) will feature wall-based artwork from over 20 Welsh artists along with films, talks, food and performances and will be happening at Cinema & Co throughout March, along with other events in Swansea, which is actually quite a funky city.

A Rare Self Portrait

I don’t often draw myself, mainly because I don’t like looking at myself; I rarely wear make up so I don’t spend much time looking in mirrors; I have always hated having my photo taken so there are no photos of me around the house. This is a rare self-portrait that I did as part of a much larger piece of ephemeral drawing back in Autumn 2015 when my fellow artist Melanie Ezra and I took over a semi-derelict shop in Swansea’s High Street and opened it up to other artists to see what happened – we called it ‘The Bagpuss Window’. I’m going to post some of the videos made of ‘The Bagpuss Window’ by Melvyn Williams over the next few blogs because I want to show some of the fab artists who came along and did art …….

Here’s the first one featuring musicians David Pitt and Shey Edlington ……..

I am putting 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.

W.M.D.

W.M.D. – WOMEN OF MANY DIMENSIONS – Exhibition / Popup Kitchen / Music / Poetry to celebrate International Women’s Day.

I’ve been working with local artists Sylvie Evans and Patricia McKenna-Jones and also Anna Redfern, the owner of the innovative Cinema & Co in Swansea, to curate an exhibition marking International Women’s Day featuring around 20 professional female artists presenting a feast of both figurative and non-figurative work in a variety of media.

The opening of the exhibition will be on International Women’s Day itself – Weds 8th March from 5.00 to 7.00pm; this will include music, poetry, ‘live’ painting and a popup kitchen serving Argentinian food. Afterwards there is a showing of ‘Frida’, the visceral biopic about Frida Khalo from 20.00.

We’re linking this Swansea art show, through the Welsh Women’s Arts Association, with a whole network of art and cultural events across Wales. Alongside the exhibition, visitors will be treated to a season of films with the accent on great women through time, as well as talks, music, literature, food, women’s enterprise and comedy.

The Cockle Picker’s Warning

I was supposed to be going off traipsing across South Wales today, drawing ancient standing stones with Dewi the prehistorian and Melvyn the filmmaker. I woke up to rain, not unusual in these parts and then Dewi rang to say he’d been talking to a cockle picker in Loughor who said the cockle pickers weren’t going out today because the weather was going to be too bad. If anyone should know, it’ll be a cockle picker. So we heeded the warning and I didn’t get to do any drawings for my blog today.

I’ve been blogging for about 6 years now and generally blog a new piece of art each day, even if it’s just a quick scribble in my sketchbook. But I have a huge amount of artwork that I did before my life of blogging so I’ll post one of these, a very quick nude drawn speedily with a block of chalky pastel into an A3 sketchbook.

I’m travelling across South Wales with prehistorian Dewi Bowen and filmmaker Melvyn Williams. Dewi is researching his new book, ‘Hunting The Wild Megalith’, based on the premise that the ancient Welsh legend, The Boar Hunt / Y Twrch Trwyth, from The Mabinogion, can be tracked across the sites of Neolithic monuments throughout the South Wales landscape and Melvyn is making a film of our journey. Here’s a short one he did late last year…..

I am putting 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.

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