A great artblog from Melanie Ezra with news of an international miniature print show that has travelled from the North West USA to The Rhondda Valley
Best Chips In Dyfed
Husb and I took off in the car and headed into West Wales today, through the fleshpots of Lampeter and the mean streets of Aberaeron, all the way to Aberystwyth to see the Shani Rhys James retrospective at the National Library of Wales. It’s a fair old journey so we stopped for a bit of dinner at Lloyds in Lampeter, who advertise “the best chips in Dyfed”. They were well tidy and they were served with the best mushy peas I have ever tasted and two very tasty faggots with onion gravy. I had a quick scribble of the elderly lady on the next table who ate her chips with one hand and held her newspaper in the other.
Shani’s exhibition is fabulous; there’s only a couple more days left but a lot of the work will be appearing in a new show at the Millenium St. Ives in Cornwall soon.
Cat Face – my drawing on video
Here’s a short video of my drawing of Sparta Puss, step by step. It’s a digital drawing done on a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 with a free Markers app. I saved the drawing frequently and then Husb edited it together on Adobe Premiere Pro with a free soundtrack from Purple Planet.
She was in a strop when I drew her and kept staring at me, which was great for sketching but I don’t know what I did to offend her. But that’s the story of my life.
Kathë and Suzanne – First Proofs
I’ve been working on silkscreen portraits of artists Kathë Kollwitz and Suzanne Valadon and today I printed the first proofs.
I wasn’t sure which paper to use so I did proofs on four different printmaking papers, one an acid free cartridge and three vintage papers by Saunders and Co. I used Daler Rowney System 3 black acrylic ink mixed with screen printing medium, one third pigment to two thirds medium. The good thing about acrylic ink is that it’s washable so it was easy to clean the screen afterwards.
Tomorrow, in daylight, I’ll take a close look at the proofs and make a final decision on which paper I’ll use for printing the editions and get cracking on them. Over the next couple of weeks, I intend to do 8 silkscreen portraits of my favourite artists.
Telling A Story
Sometimes when I’m out scribbling on the street, a story unfolds. There were three elderly people sitting on a bench in Bath last Saturday enjoying the street artists in A FAB Intervention when a woman wandered over to them and started talking in a very animated way. That made the drawing more interesting for me to do and made for a better composition. I used a grey graphite stick into my A4 hardbacked sketchbook.
I was in Bath as part of The Plebeian Scribblers, a group of 4 artists who draw in public. We stood in a square formation facing outwards and drew what was in front of us for 10 minutes, then the timer went off and we each turned 90 degrees to the right and drew for another ten minutes. This was repeated twice more (forty minutes in all) then we had a break for half an hour because it was BOILING, hottest day of the year so far! We did two more stints during the afternoon, I was shattered by the end.
Hot And Sweaty Scribbling
Here’s a sketch I did out on the street in Bath last Saturday as part of Fringe Arts Bath. I drew throughout the afternoon with The Plebeian Scribblers, a group of 4 artists from South Wales who draw in public. We took a timer and changed position every 10 minutes so each sketch is time limited. It’s a challenge to draw crowds of people on the move and locate people within the cityscape with fairly accurate proportions. I drew into my A4 hardbacked sketchbook with a grey graphite stick.
It was brilliant sunshine, the first day of a long Bank Holiday weekend and Bath is a very popular tourist destination anyway so it was hot, sweaty and teeming with people. And The Plebeian Scribblers wear a uniform of boiler suits or bib’n’braces which made me a bit hot and sweaty too! Bath is a great place to visit, loads of history, lovely architecture, great shopping and very, very quirky. This is a book about Bath (The Naked Guide To Bath) written by the brilliantly named Gideon Kibblewhite and it’s one of the best I’ve read about the place.
Car Park In Cardiff
Husb and I went to the Art Car Bootique in a car park in Cardiff today, mainly to visit Dylan’s Mobile Bookstore featuring guest artist Simon Dark. I stopped for a few minutes to scribble Simon as he created some of his stencil art about authors – Dylan Thomas, William Burroughs, Edgar Allen Poe, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and my all-time favourite, Hunter S. Thompson. The place was packed out and buzzing and we met lots of lovely people and had loads of conversations. That’s one of the best things in life, chatting to friends.
We spent the previous day in Bath, drawing as part of a live art group, The Plebeian Scribblers, in vivid sunshine and today’s event was bright and sunny too so I think we’ve built up our Vitamin D reserves after the long Winter and miserable Spring. I hope this weather stays throughout the Summer, or at least for tomorrow’s holiday Monday.
I drew with black and grey graphite sticks, white Conte crayon and Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens into an A4 hardbacked sketchbook that I had prepared with ripped bits of brown wrapping paper stuck on with Pritt Stick. The sketch took about 4 minutes.
FAB Day Drawing
I spent a hot and happy day with three fellow artists at the Fringe Arts Bath. We formed a group, The Plebeian Scribblers to do live drawing in the street as part of a larger intervention by lots of performance artists, A FAB Intervention. We each did 10 drawings of ten minutes each. That’s a lot of standing around on a boiling hot day, easily the hottest of the year so far. In this, I drew my reflection in the window of a shoe shop. I used graphite into an A4 hardbacked Winsor & Newton sketchbook. Now I’m tired and red- caught the sun.
Valadon Screen – Next Step
I left the Speedball Diazo drawing fluid to dry overnight after I had done my drawing of the artist Suzanne Valadon onto my screen. The next step is to mask it with the Speedball Filler. I drizzled a line of it, after a vigorous shake, at the top edge of the drawing (the screens were propped up so it was horizontal a few inches above the table).
Then I scraped it gently across the surface of the screen with a piece of stiff card. One swipe is recommended. I scooped up the residue at the edges with a small plastic pallette knife and put it back in the pot. Then I left it to dry horizontally. Final stage of screen preparation tomorrow. I bought some ink from Swansea Print Workshop so I might be able to start printing on Monday.
Tomorrow I’m appearing in Union Street in Bath with the Plebeian Scribblers, part of Fringe Arts Bath and on Sunday I’m popping up to Cardiff to mooch around the Art Car Bootique. Maybe I’ll see you there?
Fringe Arts Bath
Lots happening in Bath from tomorrow with this huge arts festival. I’ll be there on Saturday the 23rd with three fellow artists. We’re The Plebeian Scribblers and we’re doing an intervention on Union Street throughout the afternoon along with loads of other live art performers.
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