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.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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

The Museum Picket Line
The Museum Picket Line

“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.

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

Ysbyty Cynfyn
Ysbyty Cynfyn

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.

The stone in the wall
The stone in the wall

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.

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.

Fish And Chips And A Hot Bath

The Church Stone
The Church Stone

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 😀

 

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.

 

Aunty Nin’s Chair And #3000chairs

Aunty Nin's Chair
Aunty Nin’s Chair

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 😀

Sat With The Cat

sparta 2

I’ve been very slack about using my sketchbook and have fallen out of the habit of using it every day. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been doing any art, I’ve been immersed in drawing and printmaking projects but it hasn’t left me much time to sketch. So this evening, after Husb and I came back from the cinema (Sing Street – lovely film) Sparta settled down with me so I grabbed a quick sketch, just a minute or so, into my leatherbound sketchbook, using a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen.

S’Up In May And June?

What am I up to?

I’m working through a load of art events that I’ve been preparing for ages.

I’ve done TRANSITION, a public art event on May 20th and 21st 2016 in Swansea’s Creative Bubble Artspace with the 15 Hundred Lives art collective.

The 15 Hundred Lives art collective
The 15 Hundred Lives art collective

And then May 28th I was in Fringe Arts Bath’s “A FAB Intervention” as part of The Plebeian Scribblers, a public access street-based drawing event.

A FAB Intervention in Bath
A FAB Intervention in Bath

And then June 1st to 24th I am part of the Swansea Print Workshop collective exhibiting and running events at The Welfare, Ystradgynlais during the “Arts in the Tawe Valley (AitTV)” festival.

The Welfare, Ystradgynlais
The Welfare, Ystradgynlais

And in the middle of all that, from June 17th, I will be exhibiting a large drawing as part of a group show in the ‘Divided By The Meltwater’ exhibition in Swansea’s Dynefor Centre.

Photograph by Tim Kelly
The Meltwater between Swansea and North Devon. Photograph by Tim Kelly

Throughout September I will have a solo show at the fabulous Workers Gallery in Ynyshir, Rhondda, showing the work I am developing on the ancient ancestral stones of South Wales.

 

The Hunt Rose Davies poster

I am part of the “Leftovers VI” International Print exchange which is a touring group exhibition of miniature prints from international printmakers. It’s just been exhibited in Boise, Idaho , USA and is destined for Reno, Nevada USA in October. Moves are afoot to bring it to Wales after Reno – watch this space!

And finally I will be running short courses in printmaking at Swansea Print Workshop over the coming months. Check out details here.…

My courses at Swansea Print Workshop
My courses at Swansea Print Workshop

 

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

Rhubarb At The Castle

17-rhubarb
Rhubarb in pen and graphite

Too warm for me today, temperature around 21 Celsius, so Husb and I didn’t get down to the allotment until about 4pm, when it was staring to cool off a bit and I could do a load of digging without flaking out. Our allotment is on a site sandwiched between two woodland glades and right behind the 12th century Oystermouth Castle in Mumbles. It’s an idyllic setting but the soil is poor, a heavy clay and very hard to cultivate. But it’s good exercise and we generally harvest a good crop of fruits. Most veg need a lighter soil so we’ve built some raised beds and we’ve had moderate success with leeks, chard, rocket, potatoes, runner beans and broad beans. I’m trying out some beetroot and peas this year. Brassicas are a non-starter; as well as the poor soil, everything eats them.

oystermouth castle
Oystermouth Castle at twilight

 

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

Copper And Stone

The first proof off the new etching plate
The first proof off the new etching plate

I etched two plates at the recent course at Swansea Print Workshop with Andrew Baldwin of Trefeglwys Print Studio, one aluminium, one copper. I’ve just done a first proof from the copper plate. I used a hardground and the traditional technique of drawing into it with an etching needle than adding aquatint. Andrew demonstrated how to do aquatint using his non-toxic B.I.G. process which involved putting the grounded plate through the etching press with a piece of emery paper face down on top of the ground. This cuts tiny holes into the ground which will etch as an aquatint. I did several dips into Ferric Chloride, ‘stopping’ out areas as I went along to develop the different tones.

 

Then I cleaned the B.I.G. ground off the plate, dried it and inked it up to take the first proof. It’s paler than I wanted it, possibly I needed to etch it for longer, possibly it’s a result of using a very soft ‘drypoint’ ink with a soft Somerset paper. I need to try another proof with a heavier, stiffer ink to see if it makes a difference, otherwise I’m going to have to do some work on the plate.

Andrew Baldwin’s new book comes out in October in conjunction with the opening of the ‘BIG Exhibition’. The book will give step by step guides to all the processes that can be used with BIG. The call for entries for the exhibition is open from 1st June and is open to all who have made prints using BIG. All entries should first be sent to Andrew via atb@aber.ac.uk. The exhibition will open at The School of Art in October and then travel to other galleries in UK before going over to USA.

The subject is the King’s Quoit stone monument at Manorbier in Pembrokeshire. 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.