Breaking Out Of The Frame @ The Workers Gallery

See my print installations and more artwork by me and the gallery artists throughout March and April at The Workers Gallery in Ynyshir in The Rhondda Valley. It’s a great place to visit.

I’ve been a printmaker for a long while, I majored in Printmaking in Art College back at the end of the 1970s and my lecturer, Andy Charlton a fantastic artist, was proper old school. Nothing wrong with that, but in recent years I’ve become disillusioned with the conventional way of exhibiting prints, in a frame on a pristine wall in a gleaming white gallery.

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I’ve always preferred art to be inclusive, rather than exclusive and so many galleries actively promote exclusivity, which puts a lot of people off even entering. And when someone does step over the doorstep, it’s very easy to walk by the rows of neatly framed artwork arranged on the pristine walls without stopping for a closer look or understanding the processes that have gone into the piece.

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I’ve been trying to break out of the frame and display my printmaking in a way that develops a more interactive relationship with the viewer and also to move it into a viewing place that is more accessible than a conventional gallery. I’ve been experimenting with assembling multiple prints, starting with a work based on the cyanotype technique, a pattern for a Victorian corset and a series of sketchbook drawings of elder women.

I have exhibited them in sequence, hanging on a wall, and I also took it all apart and tied it to a clothes horse as you can see above.  I really liked the clothes airer scenario so I decided to do another.

frida paper

A while back, I had a small rubber stamp  made up from a silkscreen print I did based on the fabulous Frida Kahlo, an artist I admire very much. I printed it onto small leftover pieces of a beautiful Japanese Shiohara paper that I had been using for another print job .

I had been wondering what to do with them and I finally decided on making them up into a self-contained installation. I made a start by sewing them onto a very robust handmade paper – 300gsm – that I’d bought at the Tate Gallery a few years ago on an antique Singer sewing machine.

And then I assembled them onto a clothes airer. People seem more willing to walk around something three-dimensional and they look at the work far more than when it’s in frames on a wall.

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So far these works have been exhibited in an arts café, a conventional gallery, a pop-up artspace in a socially deprived area, and a shop window and will soon be going to The Workers Gallery in Ynyshir in the Rhondda Valley, a much-loved community-oriented artspace in what was, until the austerity cutbacks, the local library. The challenge now is to continue to break out of the frame and to find even more socially relevant places and ways to show my work.

World of Work Workers Gallery Poster

The Ratter

cath mis mai
cath mis mai

I’m tired and haven’t had a chance to do any drawing today – I’ve been slaving over a computer since this morning so I’m blogging a drawing of Sparta Puss I did a while back. She’s a fanatical hunter and she’s one of those cats who brings their prey home alive and sets the unfortunate creatures loose. My late father-in-law, a first language Welsh speaker, called her a “cath mis Mai” or a month-of-May cat and said that it was an old wives tale in Wales that kittens born after the month of May would bring home live prey, but kittens born before that would not. He said that his parents would always ask when a cat was born when they were getting a new one, and would refuse a “cath mis Mai”. I haven’t heard this from anyone else and can’t find any reference to it on the Internet so I wonder how widespread it was?

Drawing The Stones

I’m continuing to work on a series of drawings of ancestral monuments across South Wales and here are the drawings I’ve done so far on my travels  with archaeologist Dewi and film maker Melvyn. I’m chuffed with the range of the drawings and the way my work is developing into a more expressive style over the weeks. And it’s looking likely that I’ll be exhibiting these and the others I’m planning to do sometime in the Autumn. Watch this space!

Carreg Jack

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 standing stones of Ancient Siluria (South East Wales) can be found here. Accompanying us is film maker Melvyn Williams who is recording a documentary about the 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.

 

 

The Liminal Place

iron age

Out and about visiting ancient sites in and around the Rhondda Valley, we stopped on the way from Hirwaun to Treherbert to look around the Hendre’r Mynydd Iron Age settlement. It’s a bit more modern than the ones we’ve been visiting, probably less than 3000 years old. My travelling companion, archaeologist Dewi Bowen, described it as a ‘liminal’ place, at the boundary of two different environments, teetering on the very edge of an upland clearing with an immense drop into the valley below.

iron age 2

Now there are two things I don’t normally do, landscapes and abstracts and here I have drawn an abstract landscape! The settlement is made up of low-lying rock walls forming circles and swirls in the rough grass; there’s no single significant thing to draw such as a standing stone or a tomb so how to approach a subject like this? I’m not interested in doing a topographical drawing, or realism, I want to tap into something deeper that means more to me and this is what I ended up with. I drew an outline of the rock formations as they lay across the site in white conte crayon across a piece of Fabriano Accademica paper that I had prepared with walnut ink, sponged on to achieve a light background wash and then dribbled with the original full-strength ink.

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 standing stones of Ancient Siluria (South East Wales) can be found here. Accompanying us is film maker Melvyn Williams who is recording a documentary about the 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.

Rocking!

Rocking

Carrying on with our search for ancient monuments, we came across this famous one on the hillside above Pontypridd. It’s The Rocking Stone, or Y Garreg Siglo in Welsh. This seems to be two massive stones laid one on top of the other, probably a glacial erratic placed by a glacier in the last Ice Age.  but certainly done by nature, not by people. It attracted the attention of poet and bard Iolo Morgannwg, who held the second modern Eisteddfod there in 1795.  The stone circle, The Gorsedd, was erected around it some time later by the bard Myfyr Morgannwg.

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Film maker Melvyn Williams and a archaeologist Dewi Bowen rocking on the stone

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 standing stones of Ancient Siluria (South East Wales) can be found here. Accompanying us is film maker Melvyn Williams who is recording a documentary about the 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.

 

The Drinking Stone

Maen Llia

The spectacular Maen Llia standing stone near the village of Ystradfellte at the junction of two valleys, possibly a marker stone on an ancient trackway. It’s a huge diamond shaped conglomerate slab, probably from the Bronze Age and local legend says that the stone drinks from the nearby stream on Midsummer morning.

I drew onto a piece of paper prepared with some of my home-made walnut ink. I had dribbled it across the surface and the lines it made resonated with the scars across the landscape. I drew with carbon and then, for the first time in this series of drawings, put in some colour with oil pastels.

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 standing stones of Ancient Siluria (South East Wales) can be found here. Accompanying us is film maker Melvyn Williams who is recording a documentary about the 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.

Walnut Husk Ink Revisited

I’ve updated this post about the time I made some walnut ink

Rosie Scribblah's avatarscribblah

UPDATE:

It’s been about a year since I wrote this post when I made a batch of walnut ink. I’ve been using it regularly and it’s delicious, silky, smooth and rich. It seems to be lightfast, no signs of fading on any of the pieces, although I’ve been careful to use best quality acid-free paper like Fabriano and Saunders.

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Here’s the most recent drawing, in carbon and white conte crayon overlaid onto a background of walnut ink.

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So today I finally finished the walnut ink I started a couple of weeks ago. A friend gave me 4 fresh walnuts (juglans regia) in their husks. I peeled them and left the husks to stand in a basin of water for about a week and a half. They went very black and mushy. I put the basin, covered with tin foil,  into a slow cooker with hot water coming up to half…

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The Stoneless Ring

penlle bebyll
My very quick drawing with Dewi and Melvyn in the background

The final drawing from last Sunday’s trek around ancient ancestral sites took us up a mountain to the Pentre’r Bebyll ring cairn up above Pontarddulais. At 860 feet, the summit of Mynydd Pysgodlyn was really cold and I was already chilly from doing the two previous drawings at Bryn y Rhyd and Graig Fawr. This circular earthwork is about 60 feet in diameter but only a couple of feet high. It’s possible that there were once standing stones but now there’s just an earth bank remaining.

It’s difficult to draw something that is simultaneously so large (in diameter) and so small (in height) so I threw myself onto the freezing ground and focussed on the contours in front of me, drawing them boldly in carbon and white conte crayon across the paper that I’d previously prepared with home made walnut ink. It was a very quick drawing because I was cold, tired and fed up. Sketching on top of a previous drawing speeds up the process a lot and makes it unpredictable and spontaneous. I finished as I started, spattered with mud.

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 standing stones of Ancient Siluria (South East Wales) can be found here. Accompanying us is film maker Melvyn Williams who is recording a documentary about the 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.

 

 

The Maenhir on Bryn Y Rhyd

Bryn y Rhyd 1

Another site of ancient significance, a large standing stone in isolated magnificence in a field, this is the Bryn-Y-Rhyd maenhir/menhir near the village of Llanedi in Carmarthenshire. Maenhir is Welsh for long stone and this is a pretty massive specimen, towering over Dewi and Melvyn. I drew with carbon and white conte crayon onto a piece of Fabriano Accademica that I had previously drawn on in home-made walnut ink. It gives a luscious silky surface and a range of sepia tones.

Bryn y Rhyd 2

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 standing stones of Ancient Siluria (South East Wales) can be found here. Accompanying us is film maker Melvyn Williams who is recording a documentary about the 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.

 

Ponies And A Monstrous Cat

Graig Fawr

Out again today exploring ancient neolithic monuments in South West Wales, quite near to home this time. Our first stop was a fair hike up Graig Fawr (Big Rock) mountain near Pentrebach (Little Village) not far from Pontarddulais near Garreg Llwyd (Grey Rocks) farm in the County of Swansea. We walked in the freezing weather up to two small chambered tombs considered the most westerly of the Cotswold / Severn type tomb in Britain. The stones are not named so I’m going to call them Carreg Palug (Palug’s Stones) after a monstrous cat in Welsh mythology that terrorised warriors in Anglesey. Why not, eh?

We also met some gorgeous ponies up on the mountain. They were very curious, especially when they spotted my lunchbox!

I’m travelling around with archaeologist Dewi Bowen who is researching his new book. His previous book on the standing stones of Ancient Siluria (South East Wales) can be found here. Accompanying us is film maker Melvyn Williams who is recording a documentary about the process. Some of Melvyn’s short films can be seen here. If you want to see some more of my artworks, please click here.