This is the latest of the series of drawings done en plein air out in the wilds of West Wales, the smallest of three fine stones on farmland near Llechdwnni Farm on the mountain between Ferryside and Pontyberem. I worked on top of some Fabriano Accademica paper that I had prepared with my own home-made walnut ink, diluted into several washes of different intensity. When I’m using prepared paper, I don’t decide which piece to use until I’m looking at what I’m going to draw, then I choose the one that I feel best suits the subject. The drawings are evolving, becoming more insubstantial, which seems odd given that they are massive stones, but their purpose and history are unknown and that, to me, is what makes them ethereal. I used carbon for the intense black, white conte crayon and three Daler Rowney artist pastels in a light blue and two shades of green.
This is the third standing stone in the Llechdwnni group. It is positioned opposite the pair I posted yesterday and the archaeologist I’m journeying with, Dewi Bowen, thinks that the three stones might have been planned as a circle originally and either were not completed or the rest have disappeared over the millennia.
Dewi Bowen’s first book
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.
My latest day in West Wales drawing ancestral stones was the seventh so far. The time has gone by so quickly, we started in February, archaeologist Dewi Bowen, film maker Melvyn Williams and myself. The weather isn’t good now but two months ago it was brutal and the ground was sodden after months of almost ceaseless rain. On top of that, some of us were getting over Winter illnesses and although medical advice was positive about our wild walking, I found it alarming sometimes that we were far from civilisation with no phone signal. But the experience seems to be making us all fitter as we’re edging out of Winter and into Spring. Many of the stones are miles from anywhere, down roads that are not even on most maps, places that SatNav doesn’t seem to have heard of. It’s exciting discovering my country as well as my heritage. These are two of the three standing stones of Llechdwnni, near Llandyfaelog in Carmarthenshire.
Here’s a short video of me up the mountain trying to draw in the wind with a very curious Welsh pony.
I’ve been travelling around the wild spaces of South Wales over the last seven weeks with archaeologist Dewi Bowen and film maker Melvyn Williams on Y Twrch Trwyth, The Boar’s Trail from the Mabinogion, the book of ancient Welsh legends. Melvyn is filming as Dewi researches the ancient stones for his new book and I’m drawing them. Melvyn has started to edit together some little snippets of his footage as a video diary of our journeying. This short video shows how I’m preparing my paper for drawing en plein air and also has some footage of me getting to grips with drawing in a high wind up a mountain with a pony determined to get my lunch box.
Here’s Melvyn on the left and Dewi at the Llechdwnni standing stones near Llandyfaelog, Carmarthenshire, in a muddy field.
As I’m continuing to work with Dewi Bowen, the archaeologist, I realise just how many ancestral stone monuments there are across the Welsh landscape. Apart for 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, on websites like The Megalithic Portal and the Modern Antiquarian and in county surveys, but how many people actually know the extent of them outside of 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.
This reflection is beginning to influence the way I’m working. I have been drawing onto Fabriano paper that I’ve prepared with washes of home-made walnut ink, allowing my feelings and impressions of the ancient sites to guide what I put down. Then, out in the field, I draw over the background imagery with carbon, white conte crayon and occasionally soft oil pastels. This week, my drawings are far less substantial because I’m beginning to realise how peripheral these stones are to our everyday life and culture. Which is a pity.
Dewi Bowen’s first book
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.
A journey around Carmarthenshire today, to find, record and draw more Neolithic stone monuments, the first is the Is-coed Stone just outside the gorgeous seashore village of Ferryside. And now I’m tired and aching zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
The Iscoed Stone, Ferryside, Carmarthenshire
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 weather forecast is reasonable, showery in the morning but picking up later, so tomorrow we’re out and about in some mountainous areas on the trail of some ancient stones. I’ve been working on some Fabriano paper in my home-made walnut ink and I’ll be taking some pieces to draw on. I like doing this prep beforehand, I don’t like working directly onto white, it’s inhibiting. Sandwiches made, biscuits packed, walking boots cleaned of the thick mud from last week, maps packed, ready to go………..
Working on Fabriano paper with my home-made walnut ink, I’m drawing expressively from my experiences trekking up local mountains to draw Neolithic and Bronze Age stones. The ink flows like liquid silk, holding the brush strokes when undiluted and moving freely across the paper when thinned out with water to make a variety of washes. I’m laying down shapes and textures across several sheets of paper and then I’ll decide how to work into them, whether I’ll go back to my original drawings for inspiration or keep on drawing expressively without any references except my memory and imagination.
Continuing with the work I was doing yesterday, and will probably be doing over the next few days, working onto Fabriano paper with my home-made walnut ink, making expressionistic drawings inspired by, but not directly related to, the several days I have recently spent wandering mountains around South Wales to draw Neolithic and Bronze Age stone monuments. At the moment I’m building up the ink washes with sponges, brushes and cloths with no particular focus. Once I’ve completed a few more, I’ll go back and take a look at them again and see how to develop 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.
Here’s something scary, I’m getting out of my comfort zone which is working from what is in front of me. I’ve been clutching to the comfort blanket of working from reality all my life and now I’m trying to let go. And I am not enjoying it one bit. But making art is something I don’t particularly enjoy anyway, if I want to enjoy something I make a cake. That’s my hobby. Art is my vocation. And it’s hard work, lots of work, continuous self-doubt and always pushing against complacency.
I’ve been going out and drawing Neolithic and Bronze Age ancestral stones over the past few weeks and struggling to make them relevant to me. I don’t want to churn out picturesque landscapes, that’s why I’ve tended to avoid doing landscape art in the past. I’ve been trying different techniques to take me away from realism or topographical drawing and into something expressionist, gestural, emotive, visceral.
I’ve started ripping up big-ish pieces of Fabriano paper and daubing, sponging, painting them with my home-made walnut ink without reference to the real world, photos or drawings. I’m relying on the feelings, sensations, thoughts I have experienced when I have been out drawing the ancient monuments.
Oh crikey! Does that make me sound like a hippy?!!!! 😀 😀 😀
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 working on a series of expressive drawings of ancestral sites and if you want to see some of my other artworks, please click here.
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