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Just Another Stone In The Wall

Here’s a quick video of me out drawing recently, one of the standing stones I’ve been visiting this year on a mission to draw many of the ancestral monuments on the Trail of the Boar Hunt (Y Twrch Trwyth), an ancient Welsh legend from The Mabinogion. It’s an unusual stone in a wall at Ysbyty Cynfyn in Ceredigion and it’s the star of this short film. And I’m in there doing a bit of scribbling too.

I’m travelling around South West Wales with archaeologist Dewi Bowen who is researching his new book on Neolithic / Bronze Age monuments. His previous book on the stones of Ancient Siluria (South East Wales) can be found here. Accompanying us is film maker Melvyn Williams who is recording a documentary about our experiences. Some of Melvyn’s short films can be seen here. I’m currently working on a series of expressive drawings of ancestral sites and if you want to see some of my other artworks, please click here.

Black, White And Sanguine

May 8

Just back from life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop working with a super model, such an interesting body. I drew into a large, A2, brown paper sketchbook with white, sanguine and black conte crayon and some compressed charcoal. I quickly sketched in the rough outline of the figure in white and then drew into it with sanguine and then black, adding more layers of detail as I went along. It was also great to draw a contrapposto pose, quite challenging.

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I’m currently working on a series of expressive drawings of Neolithic and Bronze Age ancestral sites and if you want to see some of my other artworks, please click here.

The Husb

post industrial post modern post man

Husb is so patient, being married to an artist means he is constantly under scrutiny and liable to be scribbled at any time. And he sometimes finds his way out of the sketchbook and into other media. This is a full-colour ‘stacking’ monotype based on a sketch I did of him when we were on a train in Berlin a few years ago. He looks cold, it was -20 Celcius at the time and there was thick snow on the ground.

If you want to find out more about this monotype technique, please check out the link here 😀

I’m currently working on a series of expressive drawings of Neolithic and Bronze Age ancestral sites and if you want to see some of my other artworks, please click here.

Stones On Show

My very first solo show is coming up in September in the fabulous Workers Gallery in Ynyshir in the Rhondda Valley. Check out the details here.

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.

As time goes on, my drawings have become far less substantial because I’m beginning to realise how peripheral these stones are to our everyday life and culture. Apart from a few years in England, I’ve lived in Wales all my life and I never realised how ubiquitous these ancient monuments are. They seem reasonably well documented, but how many people actually know the extent of them outside a relatively small group of academics and enthusiasts? Despite their monumental size and their presence throughout millennia, they almost seem to be hidden in plain view, unseen and ignored by motorists and ramblers and dog walkers.

What influences a drawing? Lots of things; the subject, the artist’s reactions to the subject; the drawing materials; the weather. People often assume that artists have an easy time of it, sitting around dabbing a bit of paint in warmth and comfort, but the reality? Wrestling with a drawing board in a quagmire, gale force winds, relentless sun, hailstorms. I have been reflecting on the influence of these massive Neolithic monuments on our culture. We still use stone for memorials and until recently as waymarkers. And these massive constructions also remind me of modern environmental art and I feel that connection with fellow artists as I draw them, although four or five millenia separate us.

The Hunt Rose Davies poster

This new body of work on the stones will be on show at The Workers Gallery in Ynyshir in the Rhondda Valley in September. It’s a terrific gallery run by illustrator Gayle Rogers and sculptor Chris Williams who took over the old library in the village when it was closed at short notice due to austerity cutbacks and I’m so pleased that the stones will get their debut there. If you want to see some of my other artworks, please click here.

Devil’s Bridge

Hunting wild megaliths in West Wales last week, we took a detour to Devil’s Bridge in Ceredigion, near Aberystwyth.It’s an extraordinary gorge – at the top, three separate bridges are stacked on top of one another. The most recent is an iron bridge from 1901, under this is one from 1753 and under that, the original from 1075–1200.

Here the River Mynach drops a spectacular 90 metres down the ravine until it meets the River Rheidol. According to legend the original bridge was built by the Devil because it was too difficult for humans and in return the Devil would take the soul of the first living thing that crossed it. He was tricked by an old woman who threw bread onto the bridge so that her dog ran across. The Devil was furious but didn’t want the soul of a dog and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

I drew onto Fabriano paper prepare with my home-made walnut ink, using carbon and Daler Rowney soft pastels.

I’m travelling around South West Wales with archaeologist Dewi Bowen who is researching his new book on Neolithic / Bronze Age monuments based on the trail of The Boar Hunt, Y Twrch Trwyth, from The Mabinogion, a book of Welsh Legend. His previous book on the stones of Ancient Siluria (South East Wales) can be found here. Accompanying us is film maker Melvyn Williams who is recording a documentary about our experiences. Some of Melvyn’s short films can be seen here. I’m currently working on a series of expressive drawings of ancestral sites and if you want to see some of my other artworks, please click here.

Drawing In The Street

At the picket line, National Waterfront Museum

I went down to the picket line outside the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea yesterday, partly to show my support for the strikers, partly to get some sketchbook practice. I worked into my A5 leatherbound sketchbook with a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen, size S.

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I started with a very quick sketch, just a few seconds to start to get my eye in. In the second sketch I focussed on the background – the building and trees- to become familiar with them and overlaid a few experimental figures onto it. Finally, in my third drawing, I quickly sketched in the background (as I was familiar with it) and then I worked on the figures in the crowd, putting in the ones in the mid-distance first, then the foreground and finally filling in the ones in the background of the group. Drawing a crowd is a process of building up layers but the work has to be done quickly because, of course, people are constantly moving. I wanted to draw more, but I had to be somewhere else in a hurry so I had a quick chat with some of the picketers to wish them well and then away…..

“Staff at all sites across National Museum Wales have been out on continuous strike action for over two weeks now, following a dispute of over 2 years about a cut of 15% to the take home pay of the lowest paid for their weekend work – while senior managers face no cuts at all. The support we’ve had so far has been phenomenal, but there’s still lots of people who aren’t aware of the situation.” Check out the Facebook page here if you would like to know more.

On The Picket Line

I joined the strikers on the picket line outside the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea this morning and did a bit of scribbling into my sketchbook. The affected staff are those in the front-of-house, the ones that make museum visits special for visitors, the ones who make the museum service work for the public. They’re also the lowest paid and in this rotten travesty of a society we have at the moment, they’re the ones who are expected to take a pay cut – not the ones at the top of the tree – oh no! Sound familiar?

And our rotten biased Anglocentric national media doesn’t want to know. This is happening right across Wales but it’s too much to expect lazy media hacks to get off their backsides and travel out of London once in a while to see what’s happening in the rest of Britain.

The Stone In The Wall

Another standing stone on our hunt for the wild megalith. We tracked this one down, along with it’s companion (blogged yesterday) in a wall around a Christian church in Ysbyty Cynfyn near Devil’s Bridge, Ceredigion. It’s looks like it’s a Bronze Age site that has been Christianised. The word Ysbyty is Welsh for Hospital and it is likely that the area was once controlled by the Knights of St. John (or the Knights Hospitallers) and it’s possible that there was a hospice here, serving the pilgrims en route to St. Davids.

I drew with various conte crayons, carbon and soft pastels over Fabriano paper prepared with my own home-made walnut ink. These drawing are becoming increasingly abstracted as I focus on elements of the subject rather than doing a strict representation. The significant thing for me while I was drawing this ancient Neolithic stone is the way it is bisected by the Christian church, the wall seeming to go through it, but still it remains rooted in the ground and towers above the top of the wall.

Fish And Chips And A Hot Bath

A full day today hunting the wild megalith across West Wales. For the first time it’s been hot and dry. Two weeks ago we struggled against hail and gales, today I roasted! We headed out towards Aberystwyth on the Trail of the Boar, Y Twrch Trwyth, a route suggested by The Mabinogion. It’s been a long day and we’ve only just got back, had fish and chips and a hot bath and now I’ve blogged, I’m off to bed 😀

Aunty Nin’s Chair And #3000chairs

Back in the 1930’s my beloved Aunty Nin saved hard from her wages at Swansea Market to buy a lovely Art Deco suite from the poshest furniture store in the area for the parlour of her tiny little council house. A generation later, my sister and I used to visit with Mam and Dad and if we were on our very best behaviour, we were allowed to sit in the parlour on the Art Deco suite. Aunty Nin, like many other older relatives, kept her tiny front room immaculately clean and tidy, with glass fronted cabinets filled with tiny ornaments and lacy antimacassars on the backs of the furniture. Meanwhile, they crammed table and chairs, television and even a settee into the kitchen, cooking, washing up, eating, socialising and watching TV all in the same tiny room, while the parlour was kept for best.

Another generation later and my sister’s children were occasionally allowed to sit on the Art Deco suite in the parlour, but had to have their milk and Jammie Dodger biscuits in the kitchen. Eventually Aunty Nin became too old to live alone and I took the Art Deco suite, ripped and tatty with age. I found a wonderful furniture restoration firm and the suite was restored to its former Art Deco glory and now another generation of our family, Aunty Nin’s great, great nieces and nephews, sit on it. I don’t have a parlour and the little ‘uns are allowed to sit where they want, even with a handful of Jammie Dodgers.

I have just submitted this drawing to The Guardian Witness #3000 Chairs. Last week The Guardian newspaper published Nicola Davies’s poem The Day The War Came about the 3,000 unaccompanied Syrian children refused a safe haven by the UK government. Davis called on everyone who felt strongly about this to paint/draw/sketch an empty chair and share it on Twitter with #3000chairs. Images have been pouring in from professionals, amateurs, children. It’s a moving body of work.

Here’s a bit of trivia, Jammie Dodgers are made in Wales and they’re Doctor Who’s favourite biscuit 😀

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