Drawing A Big One

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I’m making a drawing installation for the Commensalis collective’s new show which is opening at Fringe Arts Bath (FAB2014) next Friday. It’s made up of five sections and this is the first, a large drawing (about 150 x 200 cms) in carbon, graphite and charcoal. It’s based on drawings I’ve done from photographs taken during a visit to Berlin a couple of years ago. It was minus 20C and there was about 2 feet of snow everywhere; it covered the Holocaust Memorial throwing the dark granite monoliths into sharp relief against the pristine white snow, creating ethereal grey shadows in between.

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Lush Leftovers

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Just back from the opening night of Leftovers 4 and Public Gestures, two cracking exhibitions of international printmaking at The Cove in Swansea.

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Leftovers is the brainchild of Amy Nack , director of Wingtip Press in Bois, Idaho, USA. Now in its 5th year, printmakers from across the world contribute tiny pieces to this travelling exhibition. We’re showing 175 pieces at The Cove.

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Here I am with Gayle Rogers. We both have monotypes on display with the Public Gestures group of prints that were developed in collaboration between 6 USA and 7 Swansea artists. It’s a lovely show, even if I say so myself and it runs until the middle of July.

Head And Shoulders

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Just back from life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop and I have been focusing on drawing a head and shoulders pose. Our model was sitting above my eyeline with her head tilted back which I find very hard to draw, so it was good practice.

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I used my Samsung Galaxy Tablet Note 8 using the free Markers app. I saved frequently to keep a record of the development of the drawing.

Drawing Degenerates

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I’m carrying on with my ‘Degenerates’ series of portrayals of contemporary artists that I work with. My focus is on drawing but I am also using paint as these are very large and I need to be able to cover big areas of colour. I don’t particularly like painting so I am using my fingers and bits of rag to apply the pigment in a drawingly way. Once the larger areas have been coloured in with acrylic paint, I’ll work details on top with oil bars, which should take me back into pure drawing.

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Here are some close ups showing some of the finger work I have been doing on the surface of the canvas. The work will be exhibited from the end of this month at Fringe Arts Bath at the Octagon.

Degenerates

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I’m working on a new drawing installation for a Commensalis group show at Fringe Arts Bath opening on May the 23rd. It’s based on the concept of ‘Degenerate Art’ which the Nazis used to discredit many artists in the early 20th century. This work portrays artists whose political views, subject matter and/or techniques would be criticised as degenerate by the Nazis now. Although I am using some paint, I still consider these to be drawings because I am slapping a bit of acrylic colour on with my fingers and bits of rag, to colour in the larger areas. The detail is being drawn with charcoal and oil bars.

Practice Makes Perfect (Maybe)

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I’m having a quick scribble with Husb sat opposite on the settee. I’m using my Samsung Galaxy Tablet Note with the free Markers app.

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One advantage of doing a digital drawing is that I can save the stages to show how the drawing develops.

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It’s not a good likeness but daily drawing is about practice, not perfection.

Big Appetites

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Just been for a Handi Polongwala to our local curry house, The Vojon and I scribbled this group of men at a nearby table. Big men, big appetites. Drawn into my little A6 sketchbook with a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen size S.

New Homes

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I’ve been collating the little pastel drawings I did into 2 Khadi handmade paper sketchbooks while I was travelling throught Pakistan and I’ve sprayed them with acrylic fixative to stop the fragile soft pastel from rubbing off  the surfaces. I needed to raise some funding for my residency and before I went, I offered sketchbook drawings in return for sponsorship. I was lucky enough to raise what I needed and these little drawings are my thank you to those individuals who helped me.

group 2It was a challenge for me to do all these drawings in such a short time and also to use pastels in this way, in such a small format, but I’m really pleased with the outcome and it’s opened up a new way of working for me. And next week, these little drawings will be winging their way to their new homes along with my thanks 🙂

Preparing For The Show

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I’m putting up a double printmaking show this weekend; ‘Leftovers 4′ and ‘Public Gesture‘. The first has over 160 miniature prints from the USA, Canada, Wales / UK, Israel, New Zealand, Norway and Australia. The second is a small portfolio of 13 monotypes that were a collaborative project between artists linked to Wingtip Press in Idaho, USA and Swansea Print Workshop.

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I laid them out on my kitchen table earlier to take a look. They’re lush. If you’re in the Swansea area next Friday (May the 16th) from 7pm, please pop in for the opening. The show runs until early July at The Cove, 36, Castle Street, Swansea. It’s open every day except Sundays.

Two More Mountains

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I’ve been carrying on sorting through the pastel drawings I did on my recent residency in Pakistan, tidying some up and spraying them with fixative. Here are the last two of the mountain drawings. I did them with Daler Rowney soft pastels into my Khadi sketchbook. They were done very quickly on a car journey from Lahore to Rawalpindi, just very quick impressions.

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