The Bagpuss Window

Psychobagpuss
I’ve made Bagpuss look a bit mad, bad and dangerous. This is our sign.

People outside the UK might not know who Bagpuss is. Brits of a certain age have very fond memories of this children’s television series from way back in the 1970s. Bagpuss lived in a shop window which was full of curios and strange objects. Local artist Melanie Ezra and I have taken over an old shop in Swansea’s High Street, courtesy of Coastal Housing Group, and we’ll be working from the premises throughout September. It’s earmarked for demolition so it’s pretty ropey and we’re using it as a sort of pop-up studio for ourselves and some other artists, but we’re also using the window as a constantly changing display of our art, work-in-progress, materials, tools and all sorts of curious objects that inspire  and interest us.

It’s an arty Bagpuss window…….

This is what we did today. Mel did a sterling job cleaning up (I was otherwise occupied) and then we dressed the window for the first time. Sculptor David Meredith and Filmaker Melvyn Williams helped to manoeuvre two etching presses into position, lent by Swansea Print Workshop (thank you Jackie Ford).

I’ll be doing regular updates as the window changes throughout the month.

A New Male Nude

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Just back from life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop this evening. Tonight we worked with a male model who, although thin, has very good muscle definition. I used my Samsung Galaxy Tablet Note 8 with the free Markers app, but it’s a bit on the small side for a full body study so I focused on the legs, which had some interesting foreshortening.

Popping Up

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Earlier this evening I did my first ‘pop-up studio‘ at the Taliesin Arts Centre. My latest body of work, a collection of almost 30 pieces called ‘Er Gof’, is being exhibited in Oriel Ceri Richards Gallery and we (the art collective 15 Hundred Lives) have set up a temporary studio upstairs in the cinema foyer/bar. Two of us are taking turns doing a pop-up studio for a couple of hours before feature films throughout September, until our exhibition finishes on the 26th.

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I sat and worked on a piece of vintage paper that I’d prepared with a layer of gold translucent silk screen ink, applied with a squeegee (but no screen). Continuing with the theme of the work in the exhibition, I did some intuitive drawings of heads using willow and compressed charcoal and carbon. It’s nearly finished, maybe another hour or so. It was great drawing in public. The first couple of hours was quiet but 4 people came in to sit down and talk to me. I like having conversations about art. The last hour was much busier as the cinema-goers arrived for a pre-film drink. Not so many conversations but lots of people hovering and looking at what I was doing.

The cinema is also showing our short video before each film this month. Here it is, showing the three of us and how we do our work.

Back To Basics

donkey wriggleys farm

It’s been a very busy few weeks, personally and professionally and I haven’t been keeping up with my sketchbook drawings. I should be doing a scribble each day but I’ve lapsed. So today I went back to basics. Husb and I went to a family birthday, our little great-niece is three and we celebrated at Wriggley’s Fun farm, a lovely little petting farm a few miles from Swansea. Out came the sketchbook, my leather steampunk one, with my Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen and scribbling ensued. A lovely, elderly donkey obligingly munched away and a curious sheep stood still with knock knees and watched closely to see if I had any treats for her. I did.

sheep wriggleys farm

They’re only quick scribbles, a few minutes, but they’re a vital part of my art practice because these speedy sketches in real life and real time force me to focus on the essentials rather than the detail and ultimately that’s what underpins everything I do in my work.

Bruises, Plums And A Nude

Pat portrait

Today there was sunshine! After a month of monsoon we had a dry day so Husb and I tackled our back garden, which had grown into a lush jungle after all the torrential rain throughout August (apparently the wettest August since records began). It’s become so overgrown that we spotted a huge rat hiding in it a couple of days ago. We did about 6 hours and my Felco secateurs were so over-used that I now have a bruised and painful right hand. That’ll teach me. An artist without a usable hand is pretty useless! I’ll rub some Arnica cream in before bed.

Went to visit Mam-in-Law later and she’d foraged about 3 pounds of plums so I’ve got a pot of plum chutney simmering on the stove. Husb had to help me cut up the fruit because my hand is so sore. I used a recipe from Mam-in-Law’s old cookery book that was published over 60 years ago. I adapted it to modern tastes; garlic wasn’t common back then and I used fresh instead of ground ginger and wine vinegar instead of malt. I’ll be putting it into jars about 11pm, but it’s worth the effort. There’s nothing quite like cheese on toast with home-made chutney.

This is another of my older drawings, done about 8 years ago (doesn’t time fly?) when I was experimenting with watercolour and drawing pens. I like the way my brain just turned everything so psychedelic. It wasn’t planned. Maybe I should be worried…… 🙂

Psychedelic Watercolour

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I’m still finding these psychedelic watercolour life drawing as I’m trawling through old sketchbooks. I forgot I did so many. This is a tiny one, drawing and coloured into a tiny A6 Cotman watercolour pad, using Winsor & Newton half pan watercolours, artist quality, expensive but worth it. I used Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens for the linework. This is one of our models from the regular Swansea Print Workshop life drawing group.

A Sky Full Of Opals

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Husb and I strolled along Swansea Beach this evening and I took some photos of the extraordinary sky – it looked like it was full of fire opals shimmering above us. The weather has been appalling throughout the so-called Summer, so maybe this is the harbinger of something better for the Autumn. “The sky at night, shepherd’s delight….” – fingers crossed 🙂

We walked along the Promenade, looking out to Mumbles, with its breast shaped islands and returned past the Brangwyn Hall which houses the famous Empire Panels, magnificent oil paintings, and Swansea’s Guildhall, an Art Deco building inspired by an Egyptian Temple.

Naked Man On A Stool

Alan on stool

Here’s another one from the archives. I still have a rotten cold and I haven’t done any drawing today because I’m wallowing in misery and grumbling for Wales! I went through a phase of doing these life drawings in watercolour and pens a while back, using Winsor & Newton paints, sable brushes and Faber Castell Pitt pens onto Cotman watercolour paper. I like to use the paints in this choppy, psychedelic fashion, getting away from realism. Now that I’ve revisited them, I really like the technique and I’m going to do more. When I get rid of this filthy lurgi. 😡

This model has been working with our artist group at Swansea Print Workshop for some years now. He’s an older man and a very experienced model. People think that it’s easy, just sitting around while people draw you, but it’s not. I’ve done it – it’s tougher than it looks.

Here’s a short video with me and some of my art, and two of my fellow artists. It’s showing alongside our current exhibition at Taliesin Arts Centre and it’s only 4 minutes. Just about bearable. And I don’t grumble once in it. Honest.

 

Popping Up

The Taliesin Foyer
The Taliesin Foyer-Bar

I’ll be popping up at The Taliesin Arts Centre in Swansea throughout September with my fellow artist, Sylvie Evans, from the 15 Hundred Lives art collective. Our exhibition, “People And Place”, with painter Graham Parker, is downstairs in the Oriel Ceri Richards Gallery, running until September the 26th and we’ve been given space in the upstairs foyer-bar, just outside the theatre, to have a pop-up studio where visitors will be able to see us doing what artists do, making our art. We’ll be there for a few hours before some of the films and plays in the September programme.

Our little pop-up studio
Our little pop-up studio

I’ll be there on the following Wednesdays from 4.30-7.30 pm:

September 2nd / September 9th / September 16th / September 23rd

And collagist Sylvie Evans will be there on Fridays from 4.30-7.30 pm:

September 4th / September 11th / September 25th

Some of Graham Parker's painting studio
Some of Graham Parker’s painting studio

We’ve installed some of Graham’s painting studio and Sylvie will be working on her collages when she’s there and I will be doing live-action drawing. Would be lovely to see you 🙂

Corsets, Publicity, and the Venice Biennale

I’ve caught a heavy cold and I’m going to get an early night and sulk! So I’m reposting Melanie Ezra’s artblog instead. There’s loads of arty things in it, including some stuff of mine……

melaniehonebone's avatarMelanie Honebone

Summer is drawing to an end and it’s quite a quiet time for me. I’m about to hit the ground running in September though and have so many projects about to kick off it’s ridiculous. One of these is an exhibition I’m co-curating at the end of September called A Victorian Tapestri which aims to create a dialogue between Victorian attitudes and the evidence that remains here in contemporary Swansea. Already artists from all over the country are considering and creating, delving and deliberating. From Victorian corsets to workhouse soundscapes it looks like this show will have it all.

Then there’s a little matter of the Venice Biennale. I’ve created some miniature versions from the Structured Chaos series for the Venice Vending Machine which will be opening at the end of next month.

I’m also about to kick off a series of photography workshops called Bringing Gower Home 

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