Self Experiment

21 me

After the manic amount of work I did during my residency in Boise, Idaho earlier in the month, I’ve hit a bit of a slump, probably not helped by jetlag, so I gritted my teeth and sat in front of a mirror this afternoon and scribbled what I saw. I don’t usually do self-portraits but I wanted to experiment with some portrait drawings using black and white media – conte crayons, compressed charcoal, carbon, oil pastels. I also wanted to get away from the usual detailed, fine pen work I use for portraits and develop a much more scribbly style.

I’m very influenced by Kathe Kollwitz, a brilliant scribbler and printmaker, and she did lots of self-portraits. makes sense, I don’t have to pay myself. But it’s not a comfortable thing to do. I noticed every single wrinkle, every bit of flab, every blemish eeewwwwww. I haven’t got the likeness right yet, but I’ll keep practising. This is on a piece of A3 Bockingford, 250gsm, prepared with an ink wash and drawn in black and white conte crayon, carbon and white oil pastel.

Summertime and the living is…hard work!

A lovely blog from my fellow Swansea artist and chum, Kara Seaman and her lovely collagraph of a Fox with a Pie 🙂

Three in Bath…..

19 FAB1

Today I was up in Bath with two other artists, filmaker Notsogreatdictator Smith and collagist Melanie Ezra, delivering some of our work to the Twelve:34 exhibition that will be a part of the Fringe Arts Bath event, opening this coming Friday evening. Here are two of my large ‘maniere noire’ drawings. If you’re in Bath on Friday, please call in for the opening from 6.30 pm 🙂

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Veg Under The Castle

Husb and I spent most of the afternoon and evening down at the allotment, because it’s dry and sunny and we are making the most of it. Our allotment is below a Norman Castle, which is really quite a spectacular setting for growing some fruit and veg. Here’s a drawing I did of it a while back, during an evening outdoor performance of Shakespeare.

oystermouth castle

Hoodie

17 tonya

Here’s another study from Thursday night’s life drawing group. Our model was huddled in a cool hoodie dressing gown between poses and we all liked the pose she struck casually. Drawn in Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens, sizes S and B with black and white conte crayon, onto heavyweight handmade paper prepared with gesso and ink wash.

A Stiff One

16 tonya

Back to normal and life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop this evening. I made a pear and chocolate sponge cake for our tea break. I often find that the drawings I do during the ‘long’ pose, usually about an hour, end up rather stiff, formal and academic. I suppose that isn’t a bad thing, but I wish I could get the freedom that I achieve in the short, 2 or 3 minute warm-up drawings. Ho hum.

Drawn in Faber Castell Pitt pens, sizes S and B and white and black conte crayons onto a piece of A4 mounting (matte) board, prepared with 2 coats of acrylic gesso and a black ink wash applied at random.

Heads In Transit 1

15 head plane 1

I spent long hours at airports on my way to and from my recent artist residency in Boise, Idaho and I scribbled the time away. It’s a good place for studying heads. Here are two of them.

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They are drawn into my tiny, leather-bound steampunky sketchbook, using a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen, size SX.

This artist residency has been supported by Wales Arts International and Arts Council Wales.

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Burry Port, gateway to eternity

Burry Port, gateway to eternity.

More bonkers Tales from Wales ………

Companions

14 Indian lady on plane

I’m back from the artist residency in Boise, Idaho after a 28 hour journey. OOOOFFFF! I scribbled some of my travelling companions on my way there and back. This is a very nice, very elderly Indian lady who sat next to me on the plane from Heathrow to San Francisco. She slept for a lot of the journey so I had a chance to do a longer study with some really good foreshortening.

14 nun on plane

And on the way back, I sat next to a nun and a young Irishman. Here they are fast asleep over Canada with some other passengers in the background, cwtched into their fleecy blankets. It was cold and dark, not ideal conditions for scribbling.

This artist residency has been supported by Wales Arts International and Arts Council Wales.

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Scribbling USA

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I came to Boise to collaborate with a group of artists to produce a body of monotypes and drawings, which we did, but I can’t resist the urge to scribble;it’s like scratching an itch. This is one I did of a grain elevator in Oregon. I’d never seen one before. It was huge. This is scribbled into my tiny bound leather steampunky sketchbook using a new Sharpie superfine pen. I’m not too keen on it as it bleeds through the page, but it might be better on a thicker paper, it gives a good line and flows well.

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Yesterday I was at a steamroller print session in a local school. It was very hot so I spent some time sitting in the shade, scribbling. It’s great to be able to draw so many kids because they’re so completely different to adults. Skinny little Bambi legs and heads that look too big for their bodies. Scribbling in public means you have to be very quick and sometimes you get good sketches, sometimes not. This is a mixed bag but that’s what being an artist is about, you have to practice all the time.

This residency has been supported by The Arts Council Of Wales and Wales Arts International.

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