After Sir Frank

wpid-wp-1429372901857.jpeg

Husb and I visited the Frank Brangwyn museum in Bruges today. Sir Frank has long been an artist hero of mine but despite massive fame in his lifetime he isn’t very fashionable now. It’s time he was noticed again. He was one of the founder members of the Vienna Secession; his work in the early 20th century shows the mutual influences of Schiele and Klimt. He died in 1967 aged almost 90, having produced a huge body of work; painting, drawing, etching, lithography, woodcuts, even applied arts like furniture design. I’ve known his work since childhood because Swansea hosts the magnificent Empire Panels in the Brangwyn Hall. If you’re in the city, check them out.

I was particularly taken with a large tempera painting of blind beggars from the 1920s and I did this study of the head and hands of one of the figures. His use of strong linework is sublime and easily up to the standard of his fellow Secessionists. I used some graphite sticks that I coincidentally bought at the Vienna Secession when I was there last summer.

Higgledy Piggledy

We’re in Bruges. There is a Museum of Chocolate.  There is a Museum of Chips. It’s a very cultured place. Like many very old cities, the buildings have evolved without much uniformity and the rooftops are all higgledy piggledy.  I managed a quick graphite sketch in my A5 hardback sketchbook,  it’s been pretty cold so I couldn’t do any more.

 

wpid-wp-1429298283898.jpeg

Husb and I are having an early night because we were up at one o clock this morning and we’ve already crammed a lot in.

Big John

big john 1

Went up to the farm a few days ago to collect a load of manure for the allotment. I stopped to have a look at the pigs, feeding in a big field. Most were quite dainty sows but there was one boar, Big John, with enormous tusks, a Mohican hairdo and a massive personality. Out came the A5 hardbacked sketchbook and Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens and Big John got scribbled.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It was really hard at first because I’m not that familiar with piggy anatomy and like many animals, he moved constantly. But after some tentative speedy scribbles, I got into my stride and did a few, just as fast, but with more confidence and certainty. Don’t worry vegetarians, he’s a much loved piggy living a happy life; he’s not destined for the table.

Cabinet Of Curiosities

willis

Here’s another of the 30 minute portrait drawings I did at Swansea Museum last Sunday. I have been asking people I know who are Baby Boomers to volunteer to sit for me as I want to build up a large collection of 30 minute portrait drawings over the next year or so in preparation for a large scale art project. It’s great that there has been no shortage of volunteers. It’s not easy to sit for a portrait, in public, with the artist staring intently at you and random people walking past. Swansea Museum is a pretty busy place too. So I’m grateful to my ‘Boomer’ guinea pigs.

I’m doing this as part of the 15 Hundred Lives event at the museum, it’s part exhibition and part a ‘museum experience’. It’s called PROCESS and it’s on until May the 17th so if you’re in town, check it out. Entry is free, there’s an art trail to do for the kids and the museum is a pretty special place. Dylan Thomas described it as the museum that should be in a museum. There’s still a feel of the old ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ about it.

Opening Today in London

A visual blog from Melanie Ezra with a bit of me in there too 🙂

 

Opening Today in London.

Changeable

wpid-wp-1429038971835.jpeg

I did this sketch from a digital photo I took a couple of weeks ago on Swansea Beach. The weather has changed radically since then, today’s walk was in brilliant sunshine, not like the wind and drizzle these poor tourists were putting up with.

It’s a useful exercise to draw from photos occasionally, to analyse the finer details and concentrate on composition and proportion, which isn’t usually possible with speed sketching. I used a set of graphite sticks in different grades into my A5 hardback sketchbook, across both pages.

Thirty Minutes

Evans

Here’s another of the 30-minute portrait sketches I did yesterday during my drawing day at Swansea Museum. I used Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens into an A5 hardbacked spiral bound sketchbook. I would normally do a number of quick preliminary sketches so it’s quite a challenge to do a decent drawing that is also a reasonable likeness in such a short time. I have another drawing day booked at the museum early in May and I hope to eventually build up a hundred or so of these small portraits over the next few months.

All Drawn Out

Meredith

I spent most of today at Swansea Museum drawing people. I did 7 portrait drawings in 5 hours in Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens into an A5 hard backed spiral bound sketchbook. Here’s the first – of a large series I hope. And now I’m off to bed, shattered. Goodnight 🙂

Poo To Pool

wpid-wp-1428780961351.jpeg

Husb and I spent a fair chunk of the day shovelling farmyard manure, transporting it from the farm to the allotment. Then a quick bath, change of clothes and off to a pool party celebrating the birthdays of 3 little relatives.

wpid-wp-1428781040453.jpeg

Of course, I had to have a scribble or two. They’re very speedy sketches, kids are fast moving targets. They have such impossibly skinny legs, like bambis, you wonder how they can walk. I used graphite into my A5 hardback sketchbook.

Ready For The First Cut

ready cuts

I’ve been preparing a stack of vinyl blocks ready for cutting. I’ve drawn on them, firstly in graphite then in Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens. Each block will be printed in 4 stages; the first stage is to start cutting away the areas that will be white on the final print. Then I’ll cut the areas that will be a light grey, then the areas to be dark grey and the final cut will leave the areas to be printed in black. This is called the ‘suicide’ or reduction method as it progressively cuts away at the block until there is very little of it left. There’s no margin for error. It’ll be a lot of work to print an edition from all 12 blocks. It’s going to take a while.

Printmakers = geeks. It’s true 😀