Drawing Real People

Green J

After getting some installations ready for a new exhibition in Penarth, “Print From Two Cities”, which I helped to install yesterday, I’m back to drawing my series of 30 minute portraits of Baby Boomers, my generation, born between 1946 and 1964. I’m aiming to do 100 of these drawings and so far I’ve done 20. Long way to go. Someone asked me why I don’t draw from photos, but I think that my drawings from photos look just like that, drawings from photos. Part of the process of doing these portraits is having conversations with real people, finding common ground and also where our experiences differ. It’s so interesting and sparks ideas for how to develop from this work. Talking to people while I draw them also helps me to do more animated drawings. Drawn with a graphite stick into an A5 spiral bound sketchbook,

LAST CHANCE TO SEE Print From Two Cities

 

INVITE2

 

Only a few more days to catch this exhibition of contemporary printmaking from Swansea and Cardiff Print Workshops – it’s last day is Monday the 8th of February.
This exhibition brings together some of the best recent print work from members of Cardiff Print Workshop and Swansea Print Workshop. It celebrates the work of these two contemporary organisations, both dedicated to the art of printmaking in Wales today with artists Eleanor Whiteman; Anne Giles Hobbs; Judith Stroud; Rose Davies (Rosie Scribblah); Kara Seaman; Sally Williams; Sue Edwards; Bill Chambers.

Please pop in to the exhibition – Penarth is a lovely place well worth a visit 🙂

hung
‘Hung’, a print-based installation from Rosie Scribblah

Penarth Pier Pavilion, The Esplanade, Penarth, CF64 3AU

The Cat And The Monkeys

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Sparta Puss, about 1 minute of scribbling

Greetings hairless apes. Sparta Puss here, taking over the pooter box once again. It’s been a while but I’ve been busy, y’know, eating, sleeping, getting a little chunky to keep me warm through the winter, usual stuff. Something called Christmas happened and my bald monkeys gave me a tree to climb and it was full of baubles for me to throw around and I had lots of pretty paper to shred around the house and something called tinsel that I really enjoy swallowing because it makes the furless simians quite hysterical. And so many new boxes to sit in. They took the tree away a few days ago but they’re still finding baubles around the house. I hid them. Hah! And then I dumped a dead rat by the windowsill of the monkeys’ bedroom and the she-ape got even more hysterical than when I ate the tinsel. Bwahahahaha!!!!!

sparta 2
Sparta Puss, about 4 minutes of scribbling

The she-ape’s been making scribbles with dirt from a stick onto some paper and claiming that it looks like me again. She’s an idiot.

Met A Monkeh

Went to a wedding, met a monkeh! Seemed like a nice chap.

monkeh

On the arts front, I have finally finished the print installations that I’ll be taking to the Penarth Pavilion Gallery for a new show that opens next week, with work from Swansea and Cardiff Print Workshops.

hung

These small stamped images of Frida Kahlo were developed from a screenprint I did last summer. I did a series on nine women artists who inspire me and I made the rubber stamp of Frida as an experiment and I really like the result so I’m hoping to do the rest of the artists in the series. I printed these on Shiohara paper and stitched them to a heavyweight Tate Gallery Indian paper and sewed ribbon onto them so I can tie them to the wooden clothes horse.

constrained

These cyanotypes from drawings I made of elderly women are printed onto pieces of Bockingford paper cut to a Victorian corset pattern and I’ve used eyelets and ribbon to tie them to the wooden clothes horse. I’ve been working on these for ages and it’s been lovely to get away today for a family wedding, my wonderful nephew and his beautiful wife. Top wedding and great food at the Oxwich Bay hotel on the Gower Peninsula. Spectacular scenery despite the torrential rain.

Sunpan Scribbles

sunpan

I think it’s important to draw. It underpins my artistic practice. I know a lot of people who find drawing demoralising because they can’t do it “right” but it’s a hard thing to do, like playing a musical instrument and you can’t expect to turn out a perfect drawing each time, or even for the majority of times that you draw. It’s the act of drawing that’s important because you learn something from doing it.

Today I was down at The SPace in Swansea’s High Street and artist and musician Sharon Edlington Douglas popped in with her Sunpan. She played it – beautifully- to the appreciation of the knot of people in the SPace. I scribbled her. She was moving and it was a quick sketch and it’s no great work of art and won’t make it into any exhibitions, but it’s still important to do these speedy scribbles, to try and capture movement and to be in the moment. I think so, anyway.

Here’s Sharon playing her Sunpan a while back at The Bagpuss Window, with Gong musician David Pitt.

The SPace is a short-term pop-up gallery and artspace, a partnership between Swansea Print Workshop and Coastal Housing Group. It’s open 11.30 – 5.00, Wednesdays to Saturdays until mid-February at 217, High Street, Swansea SA1 1PE.

Stitching And Tying

I’m working flat out to finish this print installation made up of almost 50 small prints on Shiohara paper sewn onto handmade Tate Gallery Indian paper. I’m assembling them onto a wooden clothes horse. I had originally intended to put them on with wooden pegs but the bars are too thick for pegs so I’m stitching ribbon onto the prints and then tying them on. I’m getting there ….. maybe another couple of hours of sewing to go.

nearly there

I’ve been using a gorgeous antique Singer sewing machine, Edwardian and over 110 years old, and here’s a short video of it in action. I love old machines – I get mechanics, so easy to fix, just a screwdriver and maybe a pair of pliers. This installation will be exhibited soon at the Penarth Pier Pavilion Gallery as part of a joint exhibition between Swansea and Cardiff Print Workshops. Please click here for more details.

Another Boomer

Burton P

The latest in my series of drawings of Baby Boomers, my contemporaries, born between 1946 and 1964. This is done in a grey graphite stick. One of the nice things about doing these drawings is the conversations I am having with the people who sit for me. We’re all the same generation and have a lot in common and the conversations have been so interesting and will influence the development of the work as it goes along. I’m planning on doing 100 Boomer drawings, from life, not photos and this is number 16. Long way to go……….

Back To Baby Boomers

Hill S

I started doing a series of 30 minute sketches of Baby Boomers a few months back. I’ve had to put them on the back burner for a while but I’ve restarted and I hope to get up to 50 in the next month……

The Old Quarry

brecon walkers 1

I’ve been looking at the photos I took yesterday up on the Black Mountain, selecting some for sketches. I’m using a white conte crayon, which is quite chunky, into a Daler Rowney ‘Ebony’ spiral bound A4 sketchbook. Here’s Husb and Number One Niece walking around the site of the old lime kilns and quarry.

Quarrying took place for around 200 years, from the early Industrial Revolution until the mid 20th century and has left its mark on the landscape. There are some very well marked walks taking in the industrial history of the area. It was unseasonably warm but very misty, we were up high and there was very low cloud over the mountain. It’s not easy to draw small figures with the blunt crayon but I don’t want to transfer to ink and fine detail. I like working out of my comfort zone.

Misty Mountain

kilns 1

Husb and I joined one of our nieces for a walk today on part of the Black Mountain north of Brynaman. Between the holidays (lots of pyjama days) and the awful torrential rain and storms, we’ve been going a bit stir crazy so despite the dire weather forecast, we thought we’d head on up the mountain and see if we could get a bit of a walk to blow away the cobwebs. On a clear day, the views are spectacular but, although it was quite mild with no rain, there was very low cloud and thick mist so we stuck to a well marked path and had a decent hour’s walk heading north-east from the car park to a limestone quarry and kilns. The path was too treacherous, stony and very muddy, for me to sketch while walking so I took digital photos on my Samsung phone to draw from in the warmth of home. I used simple materials, a white conte crayon into my Daler Rowney Ebony sketchbook (A4 spiral bound). There’s a slight texture to the paper which suits the misty atmosphere and I used the crayon along its flat side rather than the point, using a bit of smudging with my finger in places. It’s a fascinating area, geologically and historically and I’ll do some more drawings over the next few days.