Creative Juices

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Finishing things is something a lot of artists find hard. I used to. Once you’ve had an idea and worked it out in your head, it’s tempting to say to yourself, “Well, there it is. That’s the creative bit done. From now on it’s just graft.”

And up to a point that’s true, but these days I find that more creativity comes on stream as I work, as I draw, the mark-making, the interpretation of the subject are creative processes as well. I’ve reached number 76 in my series of 100 Baby Boomer drawings, but it’s still exciting and creative. As I talk to each new sitter, as I draw them I find more and more ideas spinning out of the murkiness of my brain, or heart, or guts, or wherever creative juices reside.

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This sitter was the last that I drew at the Creative Bubble artspace, a really useful service provided by University of Wales Trinity Saint Davids – or the Art School as many of us still call it. Graduates and students are able to book it for free to use in developing our creative projects. It’s so helpful to have this available in the city centre and it’s a great way for the Art School to support local artists. Thanks Creative Bubble!!! From next week I’ll be drawing more Boomers at Galerie Simpson on Swansea’s High Street. More news of that tomorrow…..

 

There’s more of my art to be seen in my online Gallery in Artfinder, please click on the image below to take a look. Thank you.

Quoit

 

Doing It In Public

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This evening Husb and I went to Galerie Simpson for the launch of a new book by local journalist and author Mark Rees, “The Little Book Of Welsh Culture“, part of Swansea’s Purple Flag weekend. I did some ‘live’ drawing of the event, working in public which is always a bit nerve-wracking. I did four drawings in all, over about an hour and a half.

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I prepared some sheets of paper before I went, a mixture of Italian Fabriano and vintage British papers. I stretched them and then gave them a coat of gesso and when that was dry, painted and drizzled them with my own home-made walnut ink. I don’t like working directly onto white paper. When I started, I used drawing pens at first but they were too fine so I switched to conté crayons in white, sanguine and black, which worked much better.

I did a mixture of individual and group sketches. There’s always a problem with drawing in public, people keep moving about. How very dare they?! ;D

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There’s more of my art to be seen in my online Gallery in Artfinder, please click on the image below to take a look. Thank you.

Quoit

Booming History

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I spend some time having conversations with the Baby Boomers who sit for me and these are as important to the development of this work as the sketches. With such a wide age group, spanning 18 years, there’s a huge range of experience and history amongst us all. It’s fascinating to listen to those Boomers older than me, the ones who were old enough to take part in the political movements of the 1960s, see the counterculture evolving on the American West Coast, live in Swinging London. These are things I watched on television as a child and it’s a privilege to talk to people who were there.

 

There’s more of my art to be seen in my online Gallery in Artfinder, please click on the image below to take a look. Thank you.

Quoit

In Profile

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Baby Boomer number 74 in my series of 100 drawings

 

I love this profile, so strong, so confident and self-assured. It’s a privilege to sit and talk and sketch with so many people of my generation. Sharing our experiences, sharing our hopes, aspirations, concerns. So many motivated, kind, committed people.

 

There’s more of my art to be seen in my online Gallery in Artfinder, please click on the image below to take a look. Thank you.

Quoit

Son Of The Sixties

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The 73rd Baby Boomer in my series of 100 drawings

Onward! I drew another four Boomers yesterday, their birth dates varying from the Forties to the Sixties. It’s quite a wide range gap so very interesting conversations that veer across so many decades. This sitter is one of my youngest, born right at the very end of the Baby Boom.

 

There’s more of my art to be seen in my online Gallery in Artfinder, please click on the image below to take a look. Thank you.

Quoit

Iconoclasm!

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This immense and fine stone is the Brynmaen Stone on Brynmaen Farm near Llannon in Carmarthenshire. It’s on private land and we asked permission at the farmhouse and the lovely farmer sent us up to the field with his son to protect us from the frisky cows and their new young bull. So kind and welcoming. Mr. Jones senior joined us while I was drawing and told us that there had been other standing stones around but they had been destroyed about a hundred years ago at the behest of a particularly iconoclastic Christian clergyman who was determined to thwart visitors to the ‘pagan’ stones. What a shame. It’s as bad as anything the Taliban and ISIS have done in recent times and it shows how fragile our heritage and history are in the face of fanatical beliefs.

I’m continuing my journey of discovery with prehistorian Dewi Bowen and filmmaker Melvyn Williams as we travel along the route of the legendary Boar Hunt, Y Twrch Trwyth, from the story of Culhwch and Olwen in the Mabinogion, the book of Welsh mythology,researching, filming and drawing the ancient stone monuments along the way. Now that my recent solo show of these drawings, at The Workers Gallery, is over, it’s time to focus on finding a publisher for Dewi’s book and an outlet for Melvyn’s film.

 

There’s more of my art to be seen in my online Gallery in Artfinder, please click on the image below to take a look. Thank you.

Quoit

 

 

Rose Davies at the Worker’s Gallery

Rose Davies is a Swansea-based artist, a prolific explorer of different ways of doing art and materials.  Her blog as Rosie Scribblah is fun and informative.  Like other artists in Women’s Ar…

Source: Rose Davies at the Worker’s Gallery

No Rest For The Wicked….

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One of my wonderful Baby Boomer sitters

Now that my solo show at the fabulous Workers Gallery in Ynyshir is over, I will be ramping up work on my Baby Boomers series of portrait drawings. I have one more day at the Creative Bubble artspace this month and then I transfer back to the delightful Galerie Simpson for a day a week to draw more Boomers during October. I hope that will take me up to around the 90 mark out of the hundred I intend to finish by the end of this year.

 

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I also have to get together with filmmaker Melvyn Williams and prehistorian Dewi Bowen to discuss how we can develop our collaboration. We still have a lot of ancient standing stones on the trail of the Boar Hunt, Y Twrch Trwyth, to carry on drawing for months, but now that I’ve had an exhibition it’s time to focus on finding a publisher for Dewi’s book and an outlet for Melvyn’s film.

 

There’s more of my art to be seen in my online Gallery in Artfinder, please click on the image below to take a look. Thank you.

Quoit

 

 

The Oscar Speech

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Gayle Rogers introduces (from left) Dewi Bowen, Rose Davies and Melvyn Williams

Wow! What an evening. It was the last night of my solo show, ‘Yr Helfa / The Hunt’, in the lovely Workers Gallery in Ynyshir and I joined my collaborators, prehistorian Dewi Bowen and filmmaker Melvyn Williams for an ‘in conversation’. Melvyn showed excerpts of the film he’s working on (he’s been following Dewi and me with a camera for 8 months now) and then engaged us in conversation about what we’ve been doing. No problem getting us to talk, we’re both chopsy.

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Some of the many drawings I’ve done en plein air following the Trail of The Boar, Y Twrch Trwyth

This has been my first solo show and it’s been both nerve-wracking and exhilarating. I’m so grateful to Gayle Rogers and Chris Williams, who run The Workers, for giving me the chance to exhibit and being so supportive; to Melvyn and Dewi who have been great to work with (the collaboration continues); to all the people who have come along to the exhibition and the two events I held; to the artlovers who bought my work; and to those who have given me so much support on social media – thanks everyone 😀

Crikey – it’s like an Oscar speech, isn’t it?

That’s it for now, the exhibition is over and I’m collecting the work on Monday but I’m looking for another venue for the show so watch this space ……..

And here are the short films that Melvyn showed last night, one featuring Dewi and one of me.

 

 

 

Great Spaces, Great Faces

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I feel like I’m charging ahead in my quest to draw 100 Baby Boomers, with seventy two completed and another 5 booked in for my last day at the Creative Bubble artspace next week. In October, I’m going to be drawing from the lovely Galerie Simpson. It’s been great drawing in different creative spaces around Swansea, the venues have been so generous letting me use their spaces.

Creative Bubble was set up by University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) and Swansea BID to get some creative stuff happening in Swansea’s City Centre. It’s based in an empty shop at 13 Cradock Street – students, graduates & friends use it to try out their ideas.

Galerie Simpson, started life as a publishing label founded by artist Jane Simpson, producing limited edition artworks made in close consultation with internationally renowned artists. Opening an office in her home town of Swansea, this organically grew into an artist led – non profit gallery; Galerie Simpson swansea, is a salon style melting pot of a space, with a diverse range of shows and events.

I’ve also drawn Boomers at The SPace, a temporary outreach arm of Swansea Print Workshop, and Swansea Museum, which Dylan Thomas described as the museum that belongs in a museum. Great spaces to draw great faces.

 

Please drop by on the last evening of my solo show at The Workers Gallery for tea and art, cake and conversation. The exhibition ends on the 24th, so not much longer to see it.

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