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? 😀

Back And Raring To Go!

I’ve had five whole days away from the computer. The RSI problem came back with a vengeance and coupled with a nasty lurgi, I decided to take a bit of a break from t’Internet. I’ve still been busy in the studio though, developing some plans for a series of larger scale subtractive drawings. I stretched some sheets of Fabriano Accademica onto the studio wall and gave them two coats of acrylic gesso. I rubbed in compressed charcoal over the surface of two of the sheets and coated the third with graphite, smoothing it over with a rag dipped in turpentine. Then I transferred one of my life drawings to a smaller bit of charcoal-coated card to do a practice piece before committing myself to the larger paper. I like this technique very much; the resulting drawing is rather like a mezzotint.

This shows the stretched paper coated with compressed charcoal either side of the piece I covered with graphite, before it had been smoothed over with turpentine.

Tatts And A Full Cooked

 

Husb and I were up and about early on Sunday, helping to hang my latest exhibition, Rinascere, at The Brunswick. It opens this evening, with lashings of cake, from 7.30 pm so if you’re passing, please call in. I’m exhibiting with two other artists, Patricia McParlin and Aled Rhys Hughes and the exhibition continues until November 30th.

After we’d hung the work, Husb and I felt the need for a Full Cooked Breakfast so off we went to the local greasy spoon caff and had their finest FCB, with extra black pudding on the side. nom nom nom. I had time for a quick scribble and spotted this chap in the corner, tucking into his FCB and sporting some splendid tattoos. Then my enormous breakfast arrived and I lost interest in him. I need to diet for a week to work it off though 🙂

Here’s one of my little solar plate etchings from the Rinascere exhibition…..

 

Talking Heads

Dad-in-law almost got out of hospital today, but a last minute cough foiled his escape bid, so I get to keep on drawing patients and visitors for a little while yet. These two chatting away in the corner had quiffs and may have been Teddy Boys when they were younger – they’re about the right age. Drawn with a Pilot V5 pen [0.5mm] into my new-ish purple silk, embroidered and recycled sari A5 sketchbook with a tassle and a little tiny bell.

Cream Crackered

Did loads today – up early to lend a hand putting up my next exhibition at The Brunswick – opening party on Wednesday 19th from 7-ish if you fancy dropping by; then a long stint digging in horse manure on the allotment – ahh nothing like wet poo in the relentless drizzle! Then a quick soak in the bath followed by afternoon tea with my new neighbours – lashings of tea and Jammy Dodgers – my favourites. And finally, visiting at the hospital. And now I’m cream-crackered. Here I am yawning. I cheated. I did this some time ago. Good night zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Fag Ash Lilies

I went for a walk around the city centre yesterday to get some fresh air – my studio was full of turpentine fumes – so I had a scribbling session outdoors while it cleared. I saw these two ladies sitting on a bench, chatting with their fags in hand. My Nanna always used to refer to women who smoked as ‘Fag Ash Lil’, in a very good-natured way though. So here are two Fag Ash Lilies, scribbled into my new purple silk recycled sari, hand-made paper A5 sketchbook. In case any readers from outside Britain are wondering, a fag is a cigarette this side of the pond 🙂

My Chiropodist’s Leg!

I paid a visit to my chiropodist yesterday for my quarterly foot-hack. Anatomical study is important in both our professions and we have interesting chats about art and science. I frequently work from the resident skeleton at our art studios, Felicity. During our chat my chiropodist asked me if I wanted to hold his leg. Of course, I jumped at the chance. So he went to his cupboard, pulled out a long drawstring bag and took out the bottom of a human leg, below the knee. The skeleton I work from is a plastic cast, but this leg is real. It has a different weight and the bone feels more – organic I guess. He showed me how to arrange the bones as they should be, if the tendons and muscles and so on were there. When you hang a skeleton, the foot bones tend to splay out, but they should be arched and the tibia and fibula sit in a particular way on the top of the foot. Interesting stuff. Well, to me anyway.

Drawn in chalky pastels and compressed charcoal into a cream A2 sketchbook.

Proofing!

I spent the early part of the week cutting blocks and today I started to take proof prints. The proof is a trial print to see that the block [or plate or screen] is the way you want it to be and it gives you a chance to make alterations, like a bit of recutting. This is Voyeur #4 and I don’t think I’ll do any more work on it. The picture shows the block inked up, before I took the print.

Blocks And Cuts

I’ve been working on a set of nine block prints for some time now, picking them up and down when I’ve got time. I’ve proof printed the first three of the series, that I’ve called Voyeur and I spent this week cutting the remaining 6 blocks. Here they are, with my ‘swag’ Convers. I’ll proof print them tomorrow to see if I need to do any more cutting. I love block printing. Cutting the blocks is like drawing with knives – I think of it as a form of drawing. I’ve cut the images into 18cm square pieces of signwriter’s foamboard. I think it’s a PVC and it’s known commercially in Britain as Foamex. It’s easy to incise but quite hard to cut, so I design with this in mind, using fairly small areas of white, as these have to be cut out and I have to keep sharpening my tools every two or three cuts. Can’t wait to proof them – I’ll be covered in printer’s ink tomorrow 🙂

Butterflies And Starlings

Another hospital visit last evening with the teenage great-niece in tow who spent a while looking out of the window at the huge flock of starlings weaving across the sky as dusk fell. The hospital is in a lovely location giving patients a fabulous view over Swansea Bay and Mumbles Head; better than most of the hotels around here. Her shoes had bright pink butterflies embedded into the soles and she made butterfly cakes to take to her great-grandfather which cheered him up. Here they are. They were lovely, really light and scented with vanilla.

Scribbled into an A5 spiral bound Crimson & Blake watercolour pad with a Pilot V5 pen, size 0.5