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A Man Of Distinction

When you’ve been drawing as long as I have, just about all my life, you realise how different people look, even those who look alike are not really, except maybe identical twins. But sometimes you meet an individual of such distinction that they stand out from the crowd and this Baby Boomer who posed for me recently is such a man. But not necessarily easier to draw. When someone has such a distinctive face, you can’t fudge it and get stuff in the wrong place because it’s instantly noticeable. This is one of the 100 Baby Boomers I have been drawing for some time now. I’m just over half way through and hope to finish by the end of this year. Eventually, these will be used in a large scale installation about my generation. I haven’t decided exactly how I’ll do it yet, but I’m thinking along the lines of developing the drawings into printmaking media like silkscreen, woodcut or stamp and using these to build up small and large iconic images from our era.

Over the last seven months, I have been travelling across South Wales with Rhondda-born archaeologist Dewi Bowen and Swansea film maker Melvyn Williams in all weathers with my portable drawing board, portfolio of Fabriano paper and a bag full of assorted artist’s materials to draw our ancient heritage. Dewi is researching his latest book on Neolithic monuments and Melvyn is making a documentary film of our literary and artistic adventures.

I’ve done around 50 drawings now and these will be exhibited in my solo show in The Worker’s Gallery in the Rhondda Valley in September. Please click here to find out more about it.

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

Talking To My Generation

I’m on a roll with my Baby Boomer drawings – I’ve done 14 half hour sketches of my generation in the past week. I don’t just draw, I allow enough time to have a cup of tea, a piece of home made cake and a chat about what it means to be a Baby Boomer, in the lovely surroundings of Galerie Simpson. It’s fascinating to listen to people and these conversations will all be fed into the work I plan to do after I’ve drawn 100 Boomers. One thing that’s coming through strongly from many people is how privileged our generation has been, how optimistic and active but at the same time, maybe naive; we really thought we’d change the world and in some ways we did, but an awful lot remains unchanged or even worse. But nobody could accuse the Boomers who’ve come through so far of being complacent. We’re an opinionated bunch.

Since February I have been travelling across South Wales with Rhondda-born archaeologist Dewi Bowen and Swansea film maker Melvyn Williams. Dewi is researching his latest book on Neolithic monuments and Melvyn is making a documentary film of our literary and artistic adventures. I’ve been tagging along in all weathers with my portable drawing board, portfolio of Fabriano paper and a bag full of assorted artist’s materials to draw ancestral stones in our landscape.

I’ve done around 50 drawings now and these will be exhibited in my solo show in The Worker’s Gallery in the Rhondda Valley in September. Please click here to find out more about it.

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

The New Model (Female Nude)

It’s always exciting to get to work with a new model and I had the chance at yesterday’s life drawing session at Swansea Print Workshop. This jolly young woman was a joy to draw. The way I draw depends on a number of factors; my materials, my mood, my surroundings and the subject. This is particularly true when I’m drawing people – my style is often very influenced by my interaction with the model.

As I developed this drawing, from an initial mass of white scribbles, the style that emerged was distinctly comic-book-like. Which is OK with me. I wasn’t afraid to distort the body slightly to fit the space – if it’s good enough for Egon Schiele, it’s good enough for me. I used white, sanguine and black conté crayons into my large, A2, brown paper sketchbook.

Over the last seven months, I have been travelling across South Wales with Rhondda-born archaeologist Dewi Bowen and Swansea film maker Melvyn Williams in all weathers with 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.

I’ve done around 50 drawings now and these will be exhibited in my solo show in The Worker’s Gallery in the Rhondda Valley in September. Please click here to find out more about it.

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

The Jolly Boomer

And the Baby Boomers are coming in thick and fast! Just completed my second day drawing Boomers at Galerie Simpson in Swansea’s High Street and here’s a jolly Boomer with the smiliest eyes. I started out last year, aiming to draw 100 Baby Boomers – my generation – and I’m nearly half way through. I’ll have to get my skates on because I want to complete them all by the end of this year.

Since February, I have been travelling across South Wales with Rhondda-born archaeologist Dewi Bowen and Swansea film maker Melvyn Williams in all weathers with 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.

I’ve done around 50 drawings now and these will be exhibited in my solo show in The Worker’s Gallery in the Rhondda Valley in September. Please click here to find out more about it.

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

Taking Time

One of the really cool things about drawing Baby Boomers is the chance to take time to sit down and talk to people, many of whom I have known for years, but we’re always too busy for anything more than a cursory chat. As I get older, I find that time shoots by so fast and before I know it, decades have passed. It’s great to talk over stuff that’s pertinent to our generation, good and bad and this is an integral part of my work on Baby Boomers, it will all feed into the final artwork. This lovely Boomer is number 46 – almost half way there. I aim to draw 100 Boomers by the end of the year.

Back in February I started travelling across South Wales with Rhondda-born archaeologist Dewi Bowen and Swansea film maker Melvyn Williams, in all weathers with 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.

I’ve done around 50 drawings now and these will be exhibited in my solo show in The Worker’s Gallery in the Rhondda Valley in September. Please click here to find out more about it.

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

Boom Boom!

Baby Boomers will remember the catch phrase ‘Boom Boom’ from Basil Brush, one of the funniest puppets on television, in my opinion. Here’s another of the Baby boomers I’m drawing as part of my plan to do 100 portrait sketches of people born between 1946 and 1964, the Baby Boomer generation. Eventually, I’m planning an installation featuring all the drawings I’ve done, but that’s a long way off yet.

Recently, I have also been travelling across South Wales with Rhondda-born archaeologist Dewi Bowen and Swansea film maker Melvyn Williams in all weathers with 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.

I’ve done around 50 drawings now and these will be exhibited in my solo show in The Worker’s Gallery in the Rhondda Valley in September. Please click here to find out more about it.

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

BOOM!

Here’s another of my Baby Boomer ‘victims’, one of 100 people born between 1946 and 1964 that I’m sketching by the end of the year. The drawing takes about 30 minutes, but I spend longer with people because I want to chat to them about being a Boomer, what makes us different from other generations, what have been the important things in our lives, what is iconic. It’s interesting to note how this differs between the Boomers at the front of the age group, who will be 70 this year and those at the tail end, who are just into their 50s. It’s fascinating stuff and will influence what I will eventually do with all these drawings.

I’ve done around 50 drawings now and these will be exhibited in my solo show in The Worker’s Gallery in the Rhondda Valley in September. Please click here to find out more about it.

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

Back With The Boomers

A while back I set myself the task of drawing 100 people, relatively quick sketches, 30 minutes maximum into my sketchbook. I wasn’t sure at first how I would choose 100 people. Would they have anything in common? Would they be just random? Eventually I decided to draw my generation and I started just over a year ago, building up a portfolio of ‘Baby Boomers’, people born between 1946 and 1964.

Eventually, these will be used in a large scale installation about my generation. I haven’t decided exactly how I’ll do it yet, but I’m thinking along the lines of developing the drawings into printmaking media like silkscreen, woodcut or stamp and using these to build up small and large iconic images from our era.

It’s something that I can pick up and put down according to how much time I have and whether there’s a venue available. This month, I have been offered some days at the lovely Galerie Simpson in High Street, Swansea. It’s a gorgeous contemporary gallery and a great place for people to sit for me, have a cup of tea and a slice of cake and a chat about what it means to be a Baby Boomer. The conversations I’m having are an important and fascinating part of the process, these will inform the exhibition work that I will eventually do .

I’ve done around 50 drawings now and these will be exhibited in my solo show in The Worker’s Gallery in the Rhondda Valley in September. Please click here to find out more about it.

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

Finishing The Drawing

I showed the first three phases of a new life drawing in yesterday’s blog and now here are the final three stages. I worked with conté crayons in white, black and sanguine into my A2 size brown paper sketchbook.

I love drawing onto brown paper. It reminds me of my childhood. There wasn’t any money to spare so my Mam used to cut up brown paper bags – that’s what you put groceries in before plastic bags – and I drew with bits of pinky white chalk she found on the edge of the Hafod tip behind our house.

The hands were hard work but worth the effort I think. They are well to the fore and the head recedes into the background. The Op Art cushion is fun and livens up the composition.

I have been travelling across South Wales with Rhondda-born archaeologist Dewi Bowen and Swansea film maker Melvyn Williams since February in all weathers with 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.

I’ve done around 50 drawings now and these will be exhibited in my solo show in The Worker’s Gallery in the Rhondda Valley in September. Please click here to find out more about it.

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

Stages Of A Drawing

Just back from life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop, working with one of our regular models, an older man. I worked large, into an A2 sized brown paper sketchbook that I picked up really cheap a few years ago in New York City. Ooooh get me! I built the drawing up with chalk to start with and then made more committed lines with white conté crayon.

Look. My friend brought me a set of conté crayons back from Cornellisens in London, white, sanguine and black.

Then I started in with the black conté. I’ll put up the final stages of the drawing tomorrow. I’m off to bed now. Goodnight.

By the way, since February, I have been travelling across South Wales with Rhondda-born archaeologist Dewi Bowen and Swansea film maker Melvyn Williams; cold and stormy, hot and humid, up mountains, through slurry, mud and bog, in all weathers 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.

I’ve done around 50 drawings now and these will be exhibited in my solo show in The Worker’s Gallery in the Rhondda Valley in September. Please click here to find out more about it.

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

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