Quickies

jan 6
five minute pose

At the start of our life drawing sessions at Swansea Print Workshop we have a few quick warm-up poses, typically no longer than 5 minutes each. They’re useful, especially if I’ve had a break and I’m a bit rusty. The first one is often awful; this one looks like Mr. Blobby, awkward, ugly and completely out of proportion. The second is much better, but still a bit out of proportion. The third pose is where I’m getting into my stride though, comfortable with the materials – chalk and willow charcoal into an A2 brown paper sketchbook – and comfortable with the model’s proportions.

 

First Nude Of The Year

jan 5

Back to life drawing sessions at Swansea Print Workshop last night, the first of the year but I only stayed for the first hour because I went off to see The Good, The Bad And The Ugly at Swansea’s newest cinema, Cinema & Co – I’d forgotten what a brilliant film it is.

Anyway, I ended up getting the most foreshortened view possible of our model – oh joy. I’m rusty because I’ve had a few weeks off, well about a month, so this was a challenge. I recorded it on my digital phone as I went along so you can see all the mistakes!

 

 

I drew into an A2 sketchbook made up of brown paper and used white chalk and Winsor & Newton willow charcoal. The brown paper provides a handy mid-tone. Our model is an older man, so interesting to draw.

From January 15th to February 8th, with some of my installations and lino prints in Penarth
From January 15th to February 8th, with some of my installations and lino prints in Penarth’s Pavilion Pier Gallery

And if you’re in Penarth in the next couple of weeks, please visit the Penarth Pier Pavilion Gallery where there’s a joint exhibition of work from Swansea and Cardiff Print Workshops, including some print installations I recently worked on and some of my lino prints.

Top End Boomer

Gibson G

And another recent Baby Boomer sketch, using a graphite stick into an A5 spiral bound sketchbook. This is someone at the upper end of the Boomer demographic, which goes from 1946 to 1964. As a generation we cover a huge range of cultural influences, music from rock’n’roll through rock, glam rock and heavy metal to punk; art from Abstract Expressionism through Pop Art to the beginnings of Conceptual art and politics from Socialism through Thatcherism and Blairism and back to Thatcherism again . Interesting times.

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

sparta 1
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……….