Had a day trip to Cardiff yesterday on the train, which is a great place for scribbling. I spotted these two opposite, the young woman with headphones plugged into her ears and the older man with a hearing aid in his.
Street Life
Sometimes when it isn’t raining (that’s not often round here) I leave the studio a bit earlier and wander into the city centre to do some quick scribbles. I saw these three ladies chatting on the street corner and just a few yards away, huddled in a doorway, one of the street drinkers who hang out on the fringes, so sad.
Ruffled Feathers
It’s getting cold, it’s very rainy and the poor pigeons are huddling together, ruffling their feathers against the awful Autumn weather. They’re clustered on the parapet next to the landing at the studios, opposite the old Albert Hall. They also hang out on the pavement outside the flower shop below, because people feed them. Some mean people call pigeons rats with wings. I think they’re sweet. I go through phases of sketching them; they’re not easy because they keep fidgeting.
Another Block Bites The Dust
And here’s another one in my series of block prints ‘Voyeur’. Here it is inked up just before printing, using Daler-Rowney block printing medium and Georgian lamp black oil paint, ratio two thirds to a third, taken with a bamboo Japanese baren onto Fabriano Accademica 120 gsm.
Final Hospital Heads?
Final hospital heads? I hope so. Dad-in-law is home now and hopefully won’t have to have any more extended stays in hospital. These are the last two heads I drew during visiting time, two very sleepy guys nodding off. It gets boring sitting in bed all day and it’s very warm in there as well.
The Tree Palace
I took a stroll up High Street yesterday, making the most of the late afternoon sunshine after the torrential rain of the past few days. I stopped and sketched the top of the old Palace Theatre which is now derelict and covered in large buddleia bushes. It looks like it’s smothered in trees.
Dating from 1888, it was a traditional music hall, Charlie Chaplin appeared there, and also a theatre and cinema before becoming a nightclub in the 1970’s and a gay bar in the 1980’s. It’s shame that it’s fallen into such an awful state of repair. It’s a Grade 2 listed building but that doesn’t seem to count for much. Dad-in-law can remember standing on it’s roof during World War 2 watching while the city centre was being decimated by enemy bombers. It’s a distinctive wedge-shape, a bit like the Gridiron building in New York, but shorter. It’s one of several old, distinguished buildings in Swansea that have been allowed to become derelict and, in the middle of a recession, there doesn’t seem to be much hope of them being saved. What a shame, it survived the Second World War but is likely to be destroyed by 21st century economics.
Good news though about the Albert Hall, another old building that I sketched and blogged about a few months ago. It looks as if the Metropolitan University, formerly the Art College, might be taking it over and turning it into a performance arts centre. Brilliant. Fingers crossed for The Palace.
Loosening Up
Sometimes I get into a rut with my drawing and I’d been spending too much time doing the Renaissance thing on tiny scraps of paper, so this week at life drawing I used my dip pens and Indian ink, along with wash and brushes, into an A2 cartridge pad. It made my linework much freer. I sketched two poses to warm up then worked on the one-hour pose below.
Stuff I Draw With
I’m doing some subtractive drawings on card prepared with two coats of acrylic gesso and overlaid, when dry, with compressed charcoal. It means I have to be a bit inventive with drawing materials, which include aluminium oxide paper, wire wool, a craft knife and bits of rag. Great fun.
Here’s the small one, based on the sketch I made at a life drawing session. I hope to finish it tomorrow and start on the huge pieces I’ve stretched onto the wall next week.
Three Little Pigs
Sometimes I get up to some weird things. Earlier this evening I went along to the old police station which has been redeveloped as housing, a cafe/bar and artist studios. There are some odd little spaces within the depths of the building, including a small first floor courtroom! An artist friend is making a film inspired by George Orwell’s book, Animal Farm, and invited some people to take part. We donned pig masks, had our mugshots taken and sat in the juror’s boxes, posing as a porcine jury while a ‘farmer’ recited poetry to us from the witness box. Opposite sat three pig’s heads in white collars, posing as judges. It was a bit gruesome, facing three dead pigs that were oozing rather unpleasant fluids, but that’s the reality of farming and butchery and it was a good opportunity to draw something I wouldn’t normally have access to. I held a human leg a couple of weeks ago, regularly use rabbit-skin glue in the studio and this evening scribbled some dead pigs. What a job.
Wet Dogs And Runners
All last week, the weather was gorgeous – a real Indian summer. Then Sunday arrived – and Husb had entered the Swansea 10k race, hoping to improve on last year’s time. The weather was ATROCIOUS! Pouring rain and ferocious winds didn’t put off thousands of runners, though. We went down early to see two of our great-nephews and a great niece run in the junior 1k races – bless them, they did really well and got soaked to the skin. Then Husb got stuck into the main race, while I waited around in the rain and gales, giving him moral support. I tried drawing but only managed one because my hands froze.
The race was won, as usual, by Kenyan runners. I wonder what they make of it, coming from a very hot country at high altitude to run in one of the wettest countries on the planet, just a few yards from the sea. Husb managed to shave 6 minutes off last year’s time, despite the awful weather. I scribbled the dog-walkers on the beach which runs alongside the race route. It gives some idea of the bleak, windswept conditions. Maybe next year I’ll manage the 5k? 😀
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