Prepping

I’ve been travelling around South West Wales with archaeologist Dewi Bowen and film maker Melvyn Williams, searching out ancient standing stones linked with the ancient Welsh legends in the book of the Mabinogion.

stage 3

When I started I just took along a sketchbook and some pieces of paper without much idea of how to approach drawing these stones, but I soon realised that I needed to have a more complex background to draw on, drawing on white just wasn’t working for me. I tried out some paper I had marbled and that worked better but things didn’t really spark until I cut up a large drawing I’d done in walnut ink onto Fabriano paper. Then things clicked into place and I have been inspired not only by the subject matter but also by the materials I’m using, it’s a synthesis of both.

I’ve done so many drawings now over 11 day trips out across South Wales, that I soon ran out of the original recycled paper so I’ve been preparing more and I did some at the weekend. I started with a large sheet of paper that I had covered with compressed charcoal on a previous outing and then painted all over with white acrylic, watered down a fair bit. Once that dried, it didn’t take long, I started working into it with my home-made walnut ink, drawing a loaded brush across horizontally, enjoying the drippage.

 

When it dried, I put it on the floor and ripped it up into 15 pieces, which will keep me going for a few more drawing trips.

Dewi 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. Melvyn 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.

The Japanese Way

edition

I normally use a printing press to take prints from the plates and blocks I make, but today I had a go taking prints by hand. It hinges on the alchemy between the right sort of ink at the right consistency and the right paper. I’ve been experimenting for a while but today I hit jackpot with a mixture of Intaglio Printmaker’s litho / relief ink mixed with extender onto Hosho paper. I built up lots of layers of very thin ink onto the vinyl block and took the print with a Japanese baren.

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I cut this image into a small block of ‘Softcut’ vinyl from a drawing I did while I was 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. If you want to see some of my other artworks, please click here.

Life Drawing Female Nude

may prone 1

This is the other life drawing I did at Swansea Print Workshop last week, working with a middle aged female model. I am always influenced by the model and often draw each of them in different styles with different media. I am using a very free line with this model, drawing with conté crayons in black, white and sanguine into an A2 size brown paper sketchbook. I like drawing onto coloured paper, it breaks the tyranny of the white surface.

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

A Hand Study

hand 5

Here’s another sketch from this week’s life drawing session at Swansea Print Workshop. I had about 10 minutes to kill towards the end so I did a study of the model’s hand – good practice. I drew into a large, A2, brown paper sketchbook with white, sanguine and black conte crayon and some compressed charcoal. I took digital photos as I went along so the development of the drawing can be seen in the slideshow below.

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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.

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.

stone in the wall
Just another stone in the wall…..

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

The gorge at Devil's Bridge
The gorge at 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
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.