Top Heavy

Clos Teg

Back to hunting wild megaliths across the out-of-the-way places in West Wales today, in intermittent drizzle. Our first call was to the Clos Teg standing stone in a field a bit north of Pontyberem. Clos Teg means beautiful, or fair, close. According to local legends, the stone was placed in its current position by the Gods of the Druids and another says that it was put there by giants and finally that it commemorates the site of an ancient battle.

We walked up an incredibly muddy and narrow path to find the stone, then the field opened up in front of us and there it stood, about half way across. It’s solid and massive but strangely top heavy and the ancient packing stones are visible around its base, like the Tyn Y Selar stone in Margam we saw last week. Dewi reckons the months of torrential rain we had over the winter might have washed away the topsoil and exposed them.

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.

 

Out Of Practice

alan 1

I’ve missed life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop for a couple of months now, because I’ve been going out and about on the trail of wild megaliths across South Wales on the same day as the drawing sessions. But for the next three weeks, I’ll be hunting the ancient stones on a different day so I was back at life drawing this evening. And am I so out of practice!

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I did 6 drawings of and the final one is half decent but it was hard work getting there. People who are not artists often have unrealistic expectations of what we do and expect us to be able to draw perfectly each and every time. I wish! It’s always a struggle and there are lots of mistakes and downright bad drawings. Ah well. Onward and upward.

 

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

On The Spot

 

Last Saturday I did some ‘live’ drawing at an art event at Volcano in Swansea’s High Street. My young nephew posed for the best part of 2 hours but he was happy as Larry playing games on my phone. I worked inside the building and drew onto translucent drafting film with carbon, Bideford Black and white conte crayon. Meanwhile, passers by could see the drawing developing from the outside. When I went to take a look, the white conte was far more obvious than on the inside and looked much better in my opinion. The video shows the drawing in progress.

 

Nathan Volcano and Rose 2

I like the challenge of being put on the spot and drawing live, I’ve always been a bit of an adrenaline junkie and I guess that live drawing is my middle aged version of tearing around on motorbikes in my youth. What a buzz!

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

Making Mistakes

 

 

Nathan 4 small

I did something unusual at the weekend. Fellow artist Claudia Mollzahn was holding an art event at Volcano theatre in Swansea’s High Street and offered me window space to develop something over two hours. I’ve had some translucent drawing film on a roll knocking around the place for ages so I decided to stick it on the window and draw what I could see of the street behind it. Unfortunately I made the mistake of not trying it out first and when I put it up, it wasn’t as translucent as I’d thought, I couldn’t see anything through it. Then my young nephew came to the rescue. He was easily persuaded to sit in a chair playing games on my phone while I drew a massive portrait of him. It was great drawing on the inside of the window, loads of people passing by stopped to look at the drawing being developed from the other side.

Nathan 5

I tried out different drawing materials, some worked, some didn’t. I sketched the basic drawing with a graphite block and some white conte crayon, My home-made walnut ink was a wash out, it wouldn’t stick to the surface of the film at all, so I used Bideford Black to fill in the dark areas and carbon for the lines. Making a mistake often leads to something good.

Nathan 3

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

 

 

 

The Speaking Stone

Cwrt Sart school 1

Out drawing megaliths last week and the last Neolithic stone of the day is another in an urban setting, ‘Carreg Hir’ (Long Stone) also called the ‘Penrhiwtyn’ stone in the playground of Cwrt Sart comprehensive school in Briton Ferry, Neath. It’s a magnificent menhir, over 9 feet tall but it has a controversial history with one story that it has always been there, another that it was originally on a mound overlooking the River Neath. The Welsh word Penrhiwtyn can be broken down  …. Pen means the top of, Rhiw means hill, I don’t know what Tyn means. But does ‘top of the hill’ indicate that the stone has been moved? The site is uphill anyway, but not at the top of the hill.

There’s also a legend that a tunnel runs beneath the stone to Neath Abbey about a mile away. It’s also aligned with the Abbey. And then there’s the legend that there is a charm, as yet undiscovered, that will compel the stone to speak and reveal its history, but once spoken, it will fall silent for eternity.

Cwrt Sart school 2

The staff at the school were lovely and welcomed us, readily giving permission to visit the stone. I used carbon, white conte crayon and Daler Rowney soft pastels in ochre and sepia, overlaid onto Fabriano paper prepared with my own walnut ink. The stone is completely surrounded by built environment and I didn’t want to focus on the buildings and do a representational drawing of them, so I matched their colours with my pastels and represented them with horizontal and diagonal lines behind the stone. Despite the concrete and brick, the stone itself has plenty of lichen growing on it, a welcome glimpse of living nature in amongst all the buildings.

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.

 

The Living Stones

Tyn Cellar

We managed to get to 4 ancient stones earlier this week and this one, Ty’n y Selar, is near Margam, in a field right next to the M4 motorway. It’s a fine large menhir, around 8 feet tall, but the sound of the traffic really intruded into the atmosphere of the place, disrupting the peace. A legend says that Saint Samson threw it into the field from Margam Hill; one of the locals we met told us of a legend that the stone regularly walks to take a drink at the local pub! I also read that the stone walks to the sea to drink each Christmas morning before the cock crows. There have been several other stones on my journey with Dewi and Melvyn that are supposed to be able to walk to take a drink.

One thing I’ve noticed about the stones as I’ve been travelling across South Wales is that they are rarely cold to the touch, they’re a comfortable temperature and most are covered with extensive colonies of lichens. I place my hand on each stone I visit, but carefully as lichen can be many years old and I don’t want to damage it. The temperature and the lichen give me an impression that the stones are somehow imbued with life, they are living stones.

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.

The Base Of The Stone

Bonymaen 1

 

The second stone I drew on this week’s journey to explore the standing stones of South Wales is just three or so miles from where I live and I had no idea it existed. It’s in an area of Swansea called Bon-y-Maen and it never occurred to me to translate the name – it’s ‘The Base Of The Stone‘! And here it is, on the green in front of the local pub. The original village, later subsumed into the city limits, seems to have been built around the stone. It’s Bronze Age, possibly 4,000 years or so old. There’s a legend that the same stone ends in the village of Penmaen on the Gower Peninsula; Penmaen is Welsh for ‘Head Of The Stone‘.

 

Bonymaen 2

Many of the local stones are sedimentary and if you look closely you can see that I have drawn the patterns made by the sediments flaking on top of the drawing in white. Once again I’ve used Fabriano paper prepared with my home-made walnut ink and then worked on top in carbon and white conte crayon. I’m regularly using a restricted palette of 3 Daler-Rowney soft pastels in a pale blue and two greens. I am continuing to move away from realism and trying to interpret my feelings of the stone, my experience of it, concentrating on mark-making with the different media.

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.

Stone In A School

Cockett Valley stone

After the rain lifted this morning I was out with archaeologist Dewi Bowen and film maker Melvyn Williams, hunting Welsh megaliths. We stayed close to home and started out by visiting the local Dylan Thomas comprehensive school, where there is a fine Bronze Age standing stone, the Cockett Valley stone, at the far end of the playing fields. It wasn’t discovered until the end of the 1970s, when the land was being cleared for the playing fields and the stone was found under many generations growth of brambles. Staff at the school kindly provided cups of coffee before showing us to the stone. This particular monument is featured in Dewi’s first book, “Ancient Siluria, Its Stones And Ceremonial Sites” published by Llanerch Press (here).

I drew with carbon, white conte crayon and Daler Rowney soft oil pastels onto Fabriano paper that I had prepared in advance with my own home-made walnut ink. If you want to see some of my other artworks, please click here.

Going Solo

They like my drawing? No, they're after my apples
They like my drawing? No, they’re after my apples

Exciting but scary news. I’ve been offered a solo show based on the work I’m doing on Bronze Age and Neolithic ancestral stones in South Wales. I’ve never done a solo show before, always been part of group shows but this body of work is coming along very quickly and I am already planning to diversify into printmaking, with woodcuts, monotypes and etchings in the pipeline.

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It will be at the most excellent Workers Gallery in Ynyshir in the Rhondda Valley, a gorgeous gallery and workshop space set up just over a year ago by artists Gayle Rogers and Chris Williams.

The exhibition will run from September 1st to 24th and will include opening and closing events, artist talks and workshops in drawing and printmaking techniques.

The Workers Gallery
The Workers Gallery

Don’t Panic!!!!!

Massed Stones

 

Here’s the recent drawing output from the last 4 days drawing ancient ancestral stone monuments across South Wales, through Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Powys. These stones are sited along the route of Y Twrch Trwyth, The Boar’s Trail, a story from the Mabinogion, the collected myths and legends of Wales.

 

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.