#HomeKeyToHome : Going Large 5

I worked with a group of adult students to produce a range of gel-plate prints, exploring colour and texture with leaves and grasses, recycled materials like bubblewrap, and carved wooden blocks. Then we ripped them up into tiny pieces and used them to construct 4 collages on A3 sized paper. These collages were heading for an exhibition at The Senedd and the A3 originals were scanned and expanded to fit 4 panels, around 4 metres high. So the tiny fragments have taken on a different dimension entirely, we’re able to see the tiniest of details on a huge scale. The exhibition is called “Home, The Key To Hope” and it’s centred around artwork and writing by people who have recently experienced homelessness It’s free and runs until February 13th.

#HomeKeyToHome : Going Large 4

Here’s another giant blow up of a small collage made from tiny fragments of gel-plate prints. It’s part of an exhibition for The Senedd, the Welsh Government building in Cardiff. The exhibition is called “Home, The Key To Hope” and it’s centred around artwork and writing by people who have recently experienced homelessness. I took the lead on creating a giant display of collages that are exhibited on 4 enormous panels, about 4 metres high.

#HomeKeyToHome : Going Large 3

Over the past few months I’ve been working with a group of adult students to develop an exhibition for The Senedd, the Welsh Government building in Cardiff. I took the lead on creating a giant display of collages that are exhibited on 4 enormous panels, about 4 metres high. Each of these panels was originally made on A3 size paper, using fragments of gel-plate prints, ripped up and reassembled in the collages. These were then scanned and enlarged to about 4 x 2.5 metres and printed onto plastic for display. I’m loving the results, the enlargement shows textures and patterns that would not be noticed on the original tiny scale.

#HomeKeyToHome : Going Large 2

This is a tiny part of a giant collage currently on display at The Senedd in Cardiff (until February 13th 2025). The individual pieces are greatly enlarged fragments that are in reality about the size of a finger nail. They started out as gel-plate prints that were ripped up and restructured into collages on A3 paper and then blown up to a height of about 4 metres. I zoomed in on sections of the giant collage and cropped them to create new configurations.

#HomeKeyToHome : Going Large 1.

Fragments of collaged gel-plate prints.

I’m an educator as well as an artist and I work a couple of days a week for a national homelessness charity as an arts tutor. Over the past few months I’ve been working with a group of other staff and our members (service users) to develop an exhibition for The Senedd, the Welsh Government building in Cardiff. Amongst other things, we’ve made a giant display of collages that are exhibited on 4 enormous panels, about 4 metres high. The starting point for this process was back in the summer, when I introduced the technique of gel-plate printing and over the weeks we made gelprints from random textures, wooden carved blocks, local plants, whatever would make an interesting impression. See more here.

#HomeKeyToHome

Sketchbook Archives: 22

Here are a couple of rare landscapes from way back in 2012. I hardly ever portray landscape, I don’t feel much of a connection to be honest, these were done quickly with watercolours during a late summer walk at Mewslade on the Gower Peninsula and I had fun with the shapes and colours, rather than trying to copy reality.

#Caturday Archives

Back in 2008, I was working with a professional life model, creating a mixed media piece and a very young Sparta Puss walked in the room and hung around, so I drew her too.

A Bit Grinchy.

I haven’t posted for a couple of days because I went and did my back in on New Year’s Eve. OUCH! I’ve never had back pain before, what a shocker! It really stopped me in my tracks for 48 hours and it’s still a bit grinchy. Is that a technical term? 😀 That’s what it feels like now. Anyway, here’s the last sketch I did at The Westbourne just before Christmas, a musical fundraiser for a children’s cancer charity. It’s hard drawing hats on heads, separately they’re fine but together they’re difficult.

Heads And Carols.

Here are a few more heads I sketched at last week’s Christmas Carol and other music performance at The Westbourne pub. There was a great atmosphere with lots of audience participation. I scribbled these quickly with a borrowed Schneider pen, I forgot my usual ballpoint. It gives me a very different line, which took some getting used to, but I think I might invest in one.

Christmas Carols In The Pub.

I went to a nice festive do at a local pub just before Xmas, an evening of live acoustic music. Husb belongs to a choir, Cor Aderyn Du (the Blackbird Choir) who gave a rousing set of medieval carols and there were other performers too. Of course, I had to have a bit of a scribble. Here’s a young singer songwriter who performed a short set of Christmas carols that he’s written, I didn’t get his name, they were lovely. I had forgotten my pen so a friend lent me hers and it was weird drawing with something different. It took me a while to get used to it, but I liked it in the end.