Honeysuckle Rose

stone flora

One of the loveliest things I’m experiencing as I’m travelling across South Wales drawing ancient Neolithic stones is the flora; the lichens on the stones unchanging throughout the seasons, plants in the fields and hedgerows an ever-changing delight of colour, scent and texture. Last week’s journey to Kidwelly and Ferryside took us through hedgerows full of wild roses and honeysuckle, rhosod â llaeth y gaseg in Welsh. In Shakespeare’s plays, the little white rosa arvensis is called musk rose and the honeysuckle is woodbine, which also used to be the name of a brand of strong cigarettes many years ago. Technically, lichens are not plants but a composite life form of algae or cyanobacteria living in a symbiotic relationship with filaments of fungi and they can be many years old.

 

While I’ve been travelling across South Wales with archaeologist Dewi Bowen, drawing megaliths in the ancient Neolithic landscape, we’ve been accompanied by film maker Melvyn Williams and he’s been editing up short films as we go along. Here’s his latest instalment in the story of The Hunt / Yr Helfa. It’s just under 4 minutes long and it’s of me drawing and talking about the stones and how they inspire me……

All the work I’m doing will eventually be featured in a solo show in The Worker’s Gallery in the Rhondda Valley in September. If you want to know more, please click here. And to see more of my work for sale, please click here.

The Past: The Future

While I’ve been travelling across South Wales with archaeologist Dewi Bowen, drawing megaliths in the ancient Neolithic landscape, we’ve been accompanied by film maker Melvyn Williams and he’s been editing up short films as we go along. Here’s his latest instalment in the story of The Hunt / Yr Helfa.

Drawing the King's Quoit
Drawing the King’s Quoit

All the work I’m doing will eventually be featured in a solo show in The Worker’s Gallery in the Rhondda Valley in September. If you want to know more, please click here.

Works for sale!

An exquisite art blog from Jac Saorsa and a rare opportunity to buy some of her works if you wish.

Jac Saorsa's avatarDis/FIGURATION

The Studies for a Portrait exhibit is now closed, however for the first time I am putting up some works from the show for sale here on my website. I am hoping to raise money to fund the development of the Drawing Women’s Cancer project which is ongoing and will generate a major exhibition in November at the Hearth Gallery at Llandough hospital here in Cardiff. I am working at present on three large scale oil portraits for this project and accompanying drawings. You can find more details on the project website.

All the pieces below are from the Studies for a Portrait show. All are executed with graphite, they are signed and beautifully framed in black wood. Average size for the pieces is A3 (210 x 420mm). The price for each piece is £200 (excluding delivery)

If you are interested in purchasing any of these works please contact me:…

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The Staring Stone

second stone

The stone near Penlan Uchaf outside Kidwelly in Carmarthenshire has an amazing view over the countryside and out over the sea to the Worm’s Head, in the background. This is another stone that has some human-like attributes and there is a sort of face staring across the water to Rhossili.

penlan uchaf flowers

After a few weeks of sunshine and lovely weather, we’re back to torrential rain and the ground was muddy again, almost as bad as when we started back in February. It’s much warmer though and I walked through fields of summer wild flowers; clover and campion I know but I don’t know what the yellow flowers are called.

 

I have spent the past few months 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. We are following the legendary trail of the boar hunt, y Twrch Trwyth from the Mabinogion, recording the Bronze Age ancestral stones that those ancient hunters might have encountered.

If you want to see some of my other artworks, please click here.

 

Heavy Embossing

scribble 3

My little scraps of a collagraph print that didn’t work out are proving to be a good base for my imaginary sketches of ancient standing stones. The print is heavily embossed and I am working with the underlying texture as I’m drawing, which influences the image and takes me a bit further into abstraction and out of my comfort zone, which is a good thing.

 

I have been travelling across South Wales with Rhondda-born archaeologist Dewi Bowen and Swansea film maker Melvyn Williams, 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. We are following the legendary trail of the boar hunt, y Twrch Trwyth from the Mabinogion, recording the Bronze Age ancestral stones that those ancient hunters would have encountered. This work will be in my first solo show at The Workers Gallery in Ynyshir in September which will feature the drawings done out in the field, etchings and linocut prints, thumbnail and intuitive drawings.

If you want to see some of my other artworks, please click here.

 

 

More Rummaging

scribble 2

 

Here’s another offcut of gorgeous paper, a rejected collagraph on  heavyweight Bockingford paper. The original black and white print had a layer of white acrylic painted over the surface, then brushed with a walnut ink wash and finally some scribbles in a thin drawing pen. I dug the paper out when I had a rummage in my draws a few days ago and I’ve been doodling shapes at random, holding the thought of the series of drawings of Neolithic stone monuments that I’ve been doing over the past 4 months and drawing from my imagination. I am very tentative when I draw like this, I have little confidence unless I have a subject in front of me so it’s good to push myself out of my comfort zone.  I used Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens.

 

I have been travelling across South Wales with Rhondda-born archaeologist Dewi Bowen and Swansea film maker Melvyn Williams, 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. We are following the legendary trail of the boar hunt, y Twrch Trwyth from the Mabinogion, recording the Bronze Age ancestral stones that those ancient hunters would have encountered.

If you want to see some of my other artworks, please click here.

The Red Janus

first stone

Back hunting wild megaliths today in Carmarthenshire high above the lovely village of Ferryside. Maen Llwyd is very unusual, made from limestone which has been pitted by erosion, but it has reddish globules in places as if the stone had been melted then stained. It’s also scattered with lichens in grey and a piercing sulphur yellow. But the most significant thing for me are the two mouth-like gashes across either side, giving it the appearance of a Janus, a head with two faces on opposite sides. Strangely, Mean Llwyd means Grey Stone in Welsh but there’s definitely a reddish tinge to this stone.

 

I have spent the past few months 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. We are following the legendary trail of the boar hunt, y Twrch Trwyth from the Mabinogion, recording the Bronze Age ancestral stones that those ancient hunters would have encountered.

If you want to see some of my other artworks, please click here.

Greatness threat level

If you’re Welsh, or if you’re not, this hilarious blog about the shenanigans of Welsh political life is a good read….

Not So Great Dictator's avatarNot So Great Dictator Speaks With Words

Due to the recent Brexit vote it is strongly anticipated that Britain will definitely be great again in the very near future.  As a result of this momentous event First Minister The Rt Hon Carwyn Jones AM has decided to unilaterally abandon the system of advertising the Terrorism Threat Level and replace it in Wales with more useful Level of Greatness.  Please see below our handy guide to the new system which will come into force immediately.  We thank you for your compliance and appreciate your alertness in all matters of greatness.

What the levels of greatness mean

Levels of Greatness are designed to give a broad indication of the likelihood of greatness.

  • QUITE GOOD.  Still mainly known as an international unit of deforestation
  • RATHER GOOD. Having a musical legend under the age of seventy, who’s not in prison.
  • GREAT.  Beating New Zealand at rugby without the…

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Rummaging

scribblestone 1

I have draws full of bits of gorgeous papers, leftover from print and drawing projects, little odd offcuts, recycled prints and drawings I wasn’t happy with and every so often I have a rummage and pull out some of these lovely bits to see what I can do with them. A few months ago I found 8 small pieces, cut from a failed collagraph experiment on a heavyweight Bockingford paper. The original print was heavily embossed in black and white so I put a layer of white acrylic over the surface and then brushed a walnut ink wash across in stripes and then did some random scribbles in a thin drawing pen. And then I put them away in one of my drawers until they emerged from a rummage a few days ago. I’ve been working on a series of drawings of Neolithic stone monuments across South Wales out in the field, literally, and the past few days, I’ve been redrawing thumbnails from my sketches. But today I grabbed some of my little bits of recycled paper and started to draw stone shapes from imagination with Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens and a 6B Graphite stick. I don’t often draw this way, I prefer to draw from life, but this is an interesting little development so I’ll stick with it for a while until I finish all 8 pieces of paper.

 

I have spent the past few months 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. We are following the legendary trail of the boar hunt, y Twrch Trwyth from the Mabinogion, recording the Bronze Age ancestral stones that those ancient hunters would have encountered.

If you want to see some of my other artworks, please click here.

Ezra’s Automata

I’m sharing a blog by fellow Swansea artist, Melanie Ezra who is also one of The Workers Gallery artists, like me. Her work is fascinating. I hope you enjoy this glimpse of it 🙂

The concepts behind my Automata series is to bring life to the inanimate and to consider different uses and meanings behind what is expected. It’s a way to consider the uncanny and also to provoke uncomfortable reactions out of viewers of my work. This latest piece considers the corset. I’ve used stitching to clinch the waist in […]

via Holding it all in — melanie ezra