Yellow And Red

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Husb and I were sitting on an archaic bench in Valetta a few days ago so I had a scribble. Most of Malta is built from stone quarried on the island. It’s a yellowish limestone, a similar colour to the stone used to build Bath. Right at the bottom of a jumble of tall, skinny, yellow buildings and rooftop television arials stood an old British style red phonebox. I had my watercolour box with me and put a wash over the line drawing.

Drawn with Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens sizes S, F and M and Winsor & Newton watercolours into my A5 Tate Gallery sketchbook.

Big Boned Gals

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Husb and I spent last week in Malta, a fabulous country with loads of ancient history stuff to enjoy. We visited the excellent National Museum of Archaeology in Valetta and saw these Neolithic statues, found in local ancient stone temples, about 6 thousand years old. They definitely liked the larger lady back in those days. One intriguing feature is that most of the statues were headless – they were discovered with separate heads nearby. It’s possible that the heads were meant to be interchangeable. The flamingo was stuffed and I drew it at the Natural History Museum in Rabat, a traditional old-fashioned museum that was charming.

Drawn with a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen size S, into my A5 Tate Gallery sketchbook.

Feet And Faffing

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Husb and I spent a week in Malta, which is why I haven’t done much blogging, because Internet access was poor and we were out walking, exploring and drawing every day.

When I am in a new place, it’s difficult to know what to draw. I don’t want to do tourist attractions, nice views and stuff like that because it’s been done before. But I can’t afford to faff around either so I try to find something that catches my eye, to get in some practice even if it’s not particularly inspirational.

I drew this in St. George’s Square in Valetta, sitting down relaxing in the heat. The chap behind the bench was cooling his feet. I scribbled them. Drawn with a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen size F into my A5 Tate Gallery sketchbook.

The Dolmen

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Husb and I are having a few days in Malta. It’s an amazing place and we can indulge one of our passions, prehistory. We saw this dolmen in the middle of a new luxury hotel and casino complex in the tiny coastal town of Bugibba. It’s over 4,000 years old and it seems odd surrounded by modern buildings. But why not? That’s Husb standing under the capstone so you can see the scale.

Our Internet access is terrible, very hit and miss with the blog and no Facebook, Twitter or Hotmail at all. Never mind, I’m on holiday 😊

Palm Trees And Rain

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Husb and I just arrived in Malta in the Mediterranean today. It’s got palm trees and rain. Just like home. But it’s warmer, fair dos mun. Not much to do on our first night so we’ve found a wifi hotspot in the hotel and I had a quick scribble of one of the locals. Tomorrow we’ll start exploring . There’s a Caravaggio here and ancient ruins.

Another One Of Those Days

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Today has been one of those hectic days with loads of things to do and here I am at the end of the day with no drawing done, so it’ll have to be a quickie of the cat again. Sparta Puss looked up from her sleep just long enough for me to capture her expression with my Samsung Galaxy Tablet Note 8 using the free Markers app.

Sawing And Scribbling

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Husb and I spent a few hours up a hill cutting down trees with some of our young relatives. The area is quite heavily forested, having been reclaimed from heavy industry during the 1970s after a couple of centuries of pollution. This area was the crucible of the Industrial Revolution and was badly scarred until Swansea University started the Lower Swansea Valley reclamation project.

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At first, only conifers would grow there, but now most of Kilvey Hill is mixed forest. A couple of areas had become overgrown with thickets of conifers and volunteers were needed to clear them. They’re Xmas trees so we were able to choose one for free in return for our labour. Result! I managed a few action scribbles in between the sawing and showers of hail, using graphite into my A5 Tate Gallery sketchbook.

In Praise Of Older Women

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The last of this week’s life drawings done with my Samsung Galaxy Tablet Note 8 with the free Markers app. This model is an older woman, I like to work with older models because it challenges our society’s obsession with youth and narrow view of what beauty is.

Another Night, Another Nude

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Another female nude from my life drawing session last night. I tried working without the stylus, using my finger instead which gives a nice fuzzy effect.

The Food Chain

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Just back from life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop, working with one of my favourite models, an older woman covered in interesting tattoos based on the food chain.

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