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Gatepost To The Moon

Sometimes ancient stones can be found in hedges and used as gateposts. We found a fine example, a really big one in a field on the hillside near Llanychaer near the north Pembrokeshire coast. There were three large standing stones, including the gatepost, the other two in the hedge and one fallen stone at the bottom of the field. The group is called Parc Y Meirw (Field of the Dead) and they align with the moon’s highest point in the sky, a phenomenon that happens every 18.6 years. Knowledge of this cycle is useful for predicting eclipses.

I drew with conte crayon, carbon and Daler Rowney artists’ soft pastels onto Fabriano paper prepared with gesso, charcoal and my home-made walnut ink. I sat on the grass to do the drawing, it was warm and dry and I could spend some time working on it, and some jolly farm boys drove by in a tractor and called out to see my drawing. We brightened each others day.

I have been travelling across South Wales with Rhondda-born archaeologist Dewi Bowen and Swansea film maker Melvyn Williams, hunting the wild megalith, accompanied by my portable drawing board, portfolio of Fabriano paper and a bag full of assorted artist’s materials. Dewi is researching his latest book on Neolithic monuments and Melvyn is making a documentary film of our literary and artistic adventures.

If you want to know more about my solo show in The Worker’s Gallery in the Rhondda Valley in September, please click here.

And if you want to see some of my other artwork, please click on the image below.

Summer? Really?

So you’d think that as it’s August we’d be having some nice summer weather. You’d think. Except this is Wales and there I was in Pembrokeshire a couple of days ago, near the top of Carn Llidi, trying to draw in gale force winds. In August. In summer. Yeah.

I did as much as I could, which wasn’t much in those conditions. There are two chambered tombs on the site and this is the smaller, which was slightly protected from the gusting wind by the larger tomb. I managed to get a substantial outline drawn onto my prepared paper and took some photos so I can finish it later.

If you want to know more about my solo show in The Worker’s Gallery in the Rhondda Valley in September, please click here.

And if you want to see some of my other artwork, please click on the image below.

Saint Elvis Of Preseli

I’ve just come back from a 2 day trip to Pembrokeshire to draw more ancient Neolithic monuments on my quest across South Wales. The first stone we came to is the burial chamber of Saint Elvis. It’s near Saint David’s which is not too far from the Preseli Mountains. Hmmmm! I wonder if Elvis Presley had Welsh ancestors?

If you want to know more about my solo show in The Worker’s Gallery in the Rhondda Valley in September, please click here.

And if you want to see some of my other artwork, please click on the image below.

The Last Leg

I’m on the last leg of The Boar Hunt, Y Ywrch Trwyth, my quest to draw Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments across South Wales that coincide with the route of this story from The Mabinogion. Just a half dozen or so left to visit and draw, along with Rhondda-born archaeologist Dewi Bowen and Swansea film maker Melvyn Williams. I like to draw on prepared paper and I’m nearly out of it so I’ve prepared some more.

I stretched a very large piece of Fabriano Accademica paper onto a wall and gave it two coats of white gesso. Then I rubbed compressed charcoal into it, covering the surface densely. Then a coat of thinned gesso, applied randomly and quickly and a second coat, again brushed on roughly. Finally, I used my home-made walnut ink, which breaks up nicely over the gesso undercoat. I love the way it runs.

We’re setting off early tomorrow. I hope it stops raining!

If you want to know more about my forthcoming solo show, Yr Helfa / The Hunt, in The Worker’s Gallery in the Rhondda Valley in September, please click here.

And if you want to see some of my other artwork, please click on the image below.

Ready To Proof

This is one of the aluminium plates (above) I was working on last week at Swansea Print Workshop, where I prepared it by degreasing the plate, creating a drawing with a solution of instant coffee with reed pens and brushes, and then coating it with a soft etching ground and here it is ready to apply a spit bite.

With a brush, I painted a copper sulphate saline solution onto the exposed areas, wiping the brown effervescence away and reapplying the solution until I thought that it had bitten deeply into the aluminium. I washed off the last of the powdery deposits and then cleaned off the soft ground with Brasso.

Here’s the etched, cleaned plate, ready for a first proof to see if I need to do any more work on it. If I do, I’ll be able to paint straight on to the areas of the plate that I want to darken with more copper sulphate solution. I’m using the B.I.G. etching technique and materials from Andrew Baldwin of Trefeglwys Print Studio.

If you want to know more about my solo show in The Worker’s Gallery in the Rhondda Valley in September, please click here.

And if you want to see some of my other artwork, please click on the image below.

The Listener

Here’s the final sketches I did at Friday night’s storytelling at Tapestri. I watched this elderly man as he listened intently to the teller …. and of course I had to scribble him! With these little sketchbook scribbles, I find that I generally don’t have to concentrate too hard so I can listen to music and stories as I work without missing too much.

If you want to know more about my solo show in The Worker’s Gallery in the Rhondda Valley in September, please click here.

And if you want to see some of my other artwork, please click on the image below.

The Teller

Another quick sketch from the Swansea Storytelling evening at Tapestri last night. I didn’t write down the name of the Teller but he was really good with a story about a jellyfish and a monkey.

If you want to know more about my solo show in The Worker’s Gallery in the Rhondda Valley in September, please click here.

And if you want to see some of my other artwork, please click on the image below.

Telling Stories

Husb and I are just back from storytelling night at Tapestri, a regular event with a different mix of performers each month. It’s in a old courtroom that’s been renovated and used now for art and culture, although they’ve kept the raised boxes for the judge and defendant and there are some very comfortable jurors chairs too. There are always lots of interesting faces to draw and these elder women were sitting, rapt, in front of a vast modern stained glass window. I usually have my sketchbook on me so I had a quick scribble while I listened to West Wales teller, Nick Brunger and his riveting Gothic tales.

If you want to know more about my solo show in The Worker’s Gallery in the Rhondda Valley in September, please click here.

And if you want to see some of my other artwork, please click on the image below.

A Light Bite

I had another afternoon at Swansea Print Workshop today and carried on with my aluminium etching plates. On Tuesday I filed and degreased three plates, did a ‘coffee bite’ drawing on each, rolled a soft ground over them and ‘cured’ them in an oven. They had to be left for a day or two to harden.

The ‘cured’ plates ready for developing in warm water

So this afternoon I developed the images by washing the plates in warm water. The black ground lifted off the plate where I had drawn with coffee.

washed — Washing the cured plate: the coffee lifts off revealing the drawing.

Once I dried the plates, I had to seal the backs to protect them when I put them into the etching mordant, a copper sulphate solution. I used overlapping strips of parcel tape.

backing — Protecting the back of the plate with parcel tape.

Then I put each plate in turn into a tray of copper sulphate solution which ‘bit’ the aluminium, causing tiny little holes to appear on the exposed areas of the plate which will give a very pale grey when the plate is printed. It also gives a good keyed surface for applying spit bite with brushes later.

dipped — Biting an aluminium plate in copper sulphate solution

The plates were in for less than a minute because I only needed a very light bite at this stage. You can tell that the mordant is working because the surface bubbles and effervesces and deposits a thick brownish sludge on the plate.

The effervescing plate covered with a brown sludge

And then it’s all washed and dried, ready for the next stage, applying the spit bite.

If you want to know more about my solo show in The Worker’s Gallery in the Rhondda Valley in September, please click here.

And if you want to see some of my other artwork, please click on the image below.

Fake, Flush And Fanning!

Today, Husb and I had a jaunt up to Cardiff, or The ‘Diff as it’s known around here, to the National Museum to take part in Sky Arts new television series “Fake! The Great Masterpiece Challenge.” I sent off an email to apply back at the beginning of the month and thought no more about it until I had a phone call about a week later and a lengthy telephone interview and next thing I was selected for filming with a companion of my choice, so I chose Husb of course.

The Beacon Light by J M W Turner

It was very humid today and I had a hot flush just before we started, but after some intensive fanning by Husb I cooled down. We spent two hours being filmed, we had to visit 9 paintings by two famous landscape artists, JMW Turner and Richard Wilson and try and work out which had been replaced by a fake. It was REALLY difficult. Would the fake be obvious, in other words a bad forgery, or would it be too well done to be able to tell? We think we found the right one, but we don’t know yet. We have another day of filming in a couple of weeks and if we have guessed the right one, we might go through to the final. Fingers crossed.

If you want to know more about my solo show in The Worker’s Gallery in the Rhondda Valley in September, please click here.

And if you want to see some of my other artwork, please click on the image below.

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