Making A Start

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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.

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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.

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.

 

 

A Rare Self Portrait

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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.

St Elvis

W.M.D.

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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 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.

The Cockle Picker’s Warning

pastel-nude

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.

St Elvis

A Nice Bit Of Overtime

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Husb and I popped down to the city centre yesterday evening to the anti-racism rally. There were a lot of police around, several police cars and a large police van. And about 100 genteel people dressed for the heavy, muggy drizzle (of course, it’s Britain) in duffel coats and kagouls, holding soggy placards and listening politely to speakers with a noisy megaphone. A nice bit of overtime for the local bobbies, makes a change from policing the drunken mayhem in the city centre at weekends. The police were fingering something on their shoulders, I think it was their radios but I’m not sure.

I drew into my steampunk leather-bound sketchbook onto paper I’d prepared with my homemade walnut ink using Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens.

 

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.

St Elvis

Hands 1

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I focused on the model’s hands at the life drawing session at Swansea Print Workshop a few evenings ago. I blocked in the white first, then sanguine and finally black with conté crayons. It didn’t go too well so I tried again…….. but that’s for tomorrow …….

 

 

 

 

The Place Of The Castle

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This is the third of the three drawings I did en plein air  at Penlle’r Castell (The Place Of The Castle) up on Mynydd Y Gwair this week, in the wind, the cold and the looming rain. I prepared Fabriano Accademico paper with white gesso and my home made walnut ink which suited the multi-layered, stratified landscape and I worked very quickly, indicating the colours of the scenery with Daler Rowney soft pastels.

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.

St Elvis

A Quick Head

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A quick portrait sketch from last evening’s life drawing session at Swansea Print Workshop. I used white, sanguine and black conté crayons (in that order) into my brown paper sketchbook. It took about 15 minutes.

 

I love to work with life models, it’s so absorbing to be able to focus and take my time studying, analysing and recording what’s in front of me. I enjoy surreptitious speed sketching into my sketchbook when I’m out and about but it’s not as satisfying as life drawing.

Stratified With Walnuts

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I managed to do three drawings en plein air up on Mynydd Y Gwair this week, in the wind, the cold and the looming rain. It was hard work! The Fabriano paper, prepared with white gesso and my home made walnut ink, dribbled and sponged, suited the multi-layered, stratified landscape and I worked very quickly, indicating the colours of the scenery with Daler Rowney soft pastels.

 

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.

St Elvis

Murky Mountain

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Up a mountain once again, Mynydd Y Gwair this week, with filmmaker Melvyn Williams and pre-historian Dewi Bowen, visiting Penlle’s Castell. Although it looks reasonably fine, it was shockingly windy and the rain clouds loomed murkily in the distance and I struggled to draw. It was very hard work, staying upright and drawing but one of the conditions of drawing en plein air. I used Fabriano paper that I’d prepared with several coats of gesso, rubbed with compressed charcoal and dribbled with white acrylic paint.The dribbles suited the grey rainy weather and I worked very quickly, just indicating the contours of the scenery in front of me with Daler Rowney soft pastels.

 

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.

St Elvis