Cats, Moon, Sonic Screwdriver

Xmas moon

It’s been a very drizzly day and there’s thick cloud this evening so there’s no sign of the Xmas Full Moon, so here’s a photo of the Xmas Eve nearly-full moon that we saw last night bouncing up over the rooftops opposite.

2015 Xmas

And first thing this morning, Sparta Puss and Ming The Merciless wouldn’t let us sleep a bit longer. They insisted on waking us up at 7am for their breakfast as usual. No chance of a holiday lie-in.

sonic screwdriver

My absolute favourite Xmas present – a River Song sonic screwdriver. I’ve wanted one for years and I’ve been hinting and finally the hints sunk in and Husb gave me this. I waved it around liberally during the Doctor Who Xmas Special this afternoon, flashing the lights and making sonic screwdriver noises at appropriate moments. Oh joy!!!!

Xmas Day

And finally, a quick daily scribble, Husb watching the TV. We haven’t set foot out of the door all day, just slobbed around, watching TV, cooking (I made a lemon-layered pudding from my favourite 1970s cookbook), eating (dear Mother-in-Law gave us a large box of cheeses – top prezzy) and pandering to the cats.

I hope everyone has had a nice relaxing holiday and had lovely presents.

And Now For Something Completely Different!

knitting

Or a change is as good as a rest. I’m arted out! I wanted to have a break so I started knitting. I’m making some fingerless mittens, very useful for someone who does a lot of outdoor scribbling in all weathers. You can find the pattern here, from another blogger, Crafty Little Sewnsew. I’m using some lovely natural wool from the gorgeous Trefriw Woollen Mill in North Wales, which uses water from the River Crafnant to drive the turbines to weave beautiful traditional Welsh tweed. It’s been operating for nearly 2 centuries, most of that time it’s been owned by the same family. Sparta Puss has been helping me. Not!

Nothing Fancy

stripped back

Another vista from the old church, a spooky corridor beyond a heavy door. It was a dark and rainy day when I took the photos, no artificial light and precious little natural light which added to the atmospherics of the place. I decided not to use a flash because I wanted the deep shadows and high contrast, the effect of chiaroscuro. I used the simplest materials – a small white conte crayon into a Daler Rowney spiral bound A4 Ebony sketchbook. Nothing fancy.

And A Cranny

cranny

Yesterday I drew a nook in the old church and today I drew a cranny. I was lucky enough to be able to take some photographs in an early 20th century church a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been drawing from them using white conte crayon into my Daler Rowney Ebony sketchbook. It’s pulling me away from my usual reliance on fine, detailed line and into intangibles, atmospheres and emotions. I’m so enjoying it and getting ideas for manier noir drawings and mezzotint etchings. I’ll be doing a lot more of these sketches I think, I’m finding it very stimulating.

A Nook?

corridor 1

Is it a nook or a cranny? Here’s another very quick sketch based on some digital photos I took last week in an old church that is up for sale. It’s surprising how many nooks and crannies there are in old buildings. From the outside, it doesn’t look like it’s been extended but inside, this strange little corridor was tucked away at the back of the building and doesn’t seem to serve any particular purpose. It’s only about a hundred years old so I’m guessing that an architect was involved, so I find it a bit odd that the weird little places dotted around the church were designed in the first place.

I sketched into my A4 Daler Rowney Ebony sketchbook with a piece of white conte crayon.

Deconstruct Reconstruct

deconstruct

A little while ago I made a group of cyanotype prints from some original sketchbook portraits of older women. Each was printed onto a piece of heavyweight Bockingford paper cut from a pattern for a Victorian corset. I assembled them originally in the sequence that would assemble the corset, tying each together with purple ribbon and hanging the sequence from the wall. I am submitting these for an exhibition in the New Year and the gallery wants to exhibit prints ‘off the wall’ so I have had to rethink how I put this together. I took it all apart and tied it to a clothes horse. The clothes dryer represents a traditional female role, the corset would have been dried or aired on something similar. The way I tied the pieces was significant. I tried tying the ribbon with bows but it seemed too soft so I tied it with tight knots which seemed more in keeping with my title of the piece, ‘Constrained’.

I’m continuing to develop this piece at The SPace, at 217, High Street, Swansea. It’s open next week, Monday to Wednesday 11.30 – 5.00 and Thursday, 11.30 – 4pm if you want to pop in and see it.

Hungry Scribbles

curry

It was the life drawing group’s annual Xmas curry last night at the excellent Vojon curry house. I had a Handi Lamb Polongwala with a Gobi Aloo – no rice or naan as I’m cutting back on refined carbs for a little while. I was still stuffed until lunchtime, a very late lunch too. Because there was a large group of us, we had to wait a while for our food, they cook everything fresh, so I did some quick scribbles to take my mind off the hunger pangs. The food was well worth waiting for though.

book cover

I used a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen into my little Peter Pauper Press ‘Cat’s Meow Journal’. It’s a very sweet sketchbook, i really like it. Sparta Puss doesn’t seem too impressed though. She’s studiously ignoring it.

Women in art who paint

http://womenintheactofpainting.blogspot.co.uk/

Excellent artblog, lots of visuals

The Spiral Stair

spiral 1

Here’s another drawing from my visit to the old church yesterday. It’s one of those rambling churches in the Victorian tradition, although it was actually built around World War 1. The fabric of the building is pretty sound, but there is a some deterioration to parts of the interior. There is a consortium of different community and cultural groups pulling together to buy and adapt the old building and give it a new lease of life.

The church is full of nooks and crannies and this little bit of a spiral stone staircase is behind a heavy wooden door at the back of the building, leading up to the top of the bell tower. I took a load of digital photos without a flash; the inside was dark and gloomy with little natural daylight coming in from the rain-soaked December afternoon outside.

I used white conte crayon, chalk and compressed charcoal into a Daler Rowney Ebony A4 spiral bound sketchbook. I like drawing onto black paper and I especially like the difference in the blackness of the paper and even more darkness of the compressed charcoal.

The Dark Old Church

window 1

I went rummaging around in an old church earlier today. There were no working lights and the natural daylight was very dim because of the torrential rain outside, so it was dark and spooky. I did some sketching into my Daler Rowney Ebony sketchbook with white conte crayon and chalk. The church is no longer used and it’s up for sale for around £50,000 but it needs about another half a million spent on it. A consortium of groups – artists, musicians, community organisations, performers, is trying to raise the funds to buy and develop it.

I loved being in there in the dark, absorbing the spooky atmosphere. I took a lot of photos as well so I’ll probably do a few more sketches from them and I might develop them into manier noir drawings over the coming weeks.