Before The Singletons…

The past few days I’ve been posting drawings of single figures I did during my recent residency in Germany. I worked quickly and intuitively with twigs and ink onto Khadi handmade paper (320gsm). But before that, I did a few sheets with multiple figures on. It took me a while to realise the paper needed just one figure on a sheet. This one is drawn with a bamboo pen with a narrow nib. Although some of the figures are interesting, the sheet is crowded and doesn’t, in my opinion, give enough space to each one.

I went to the artist residency with four other Welsh women artists, Chris Bird-Jones, Sarah Hopkins , Rhiannon Rees  and Rhian Haf. We have been supported by Wales Arts International. We are all members of AGOR Abertawe, set up to facilitate creative activity between women artists in Swansea / South Wales, and the Brandenburg area. We were mostly at the Atelierhof Werenzhaim, an artist community founded in 1996 by artists from East and West Germany in a 14th century former feudal tavern estate.

Changed My Mind.

These two single figures drawn with twigs and ink have a dynamic relationship between them, even though I did not draw them with that intention. I thought that figure on the left needed something else on the paper but after I had done it, I changed my mind. But that’s the way it happens sometimes.

I went to the artist residency with four other Welsh women artists, Chris Bird-Jones, Sarah Hopkins , Rhiannon Rees  and Rhian Haf. We have been supported by Wales Arts International. We are all members of AGOR Abertawe, set up to facilitate creative activity between women artists in Swansea / South Wales, and the Brandenburg area. We were mostly at the Atelierhof Werenzhaim, an artist community founded in 1996 by artists from East and West Germany in a 14th century former feudal tavern estate.

What Is Their Story?

These little drawings from imagination I did on my recent artist residency in Germany are powerful on their own, I think. But some of them can be put together and become even more powerful, they start to tell a story. Look at these two. What is their story?

I used a twig dipped in ink onto Khadi handmade 320gsm paper. I emptied my mind of thoughts and direction and let my hand be guided from somewhere, I don’t know where.

I went to the artist residency with four other Welsh women artists, Chris Bird-Jones, Sarah Hopkins , Rhiannon Rees  and Rhian Haf. We have been supported by Wales Arts International. We are all members of AGOR Abertawe, set up to facilitate creative activity between women artists in Swansea / South Wales, and the Brandenburg area. We were mostly at the Atelierhof Werenzhaim, an artist community founded in 1996 by artists from East and West Germany in a 14th century former feudal tavern estate.

How It Turns Out…

Carrying on with the twig and ink drawings I did in Germany, I did these very quickly and intuitively, one figure per page (Khadi 320gsm size A5). These two were one after the other. It wasn’t my intention that they should be looking at each other but that’s what happened. There’s little control when you’re drawing with a twig, no chance of fine detail. You just have to accept how it turns out.

I went to the artist residency with four other Welsh women artists, Chris Bird-Jones, Sarah Hopkins , Rhiannon Rees  and Rhian Haf. We have been supported by Wales Arts International. We are all members of AGOR Abertawe, set up to facilitate creative activity between women artists in Swansea / South Wales, and the Brandenburg area. We were mostly at the Atelierhof Werenzhaim, an artist community founded in 1996 by artists from East and West Germany in a 14th century former feudal tavern estate.

Trees Or Stags Or…

I took a set of 20 pieces of hand-made Khadi paper, size A5, to my artist residency in Germany earlier this month and after making over a hundred drawings on a very large piece of paper (see here) I switched from a big studio in a barn to a tiny ancient stable to work small. I had used 4 pieces of the Khadi paper before I came to the Atelierhof Werenzhaim, I decided to use the remaining 16 to draw from my imagination with twigs dipped in ink. I drew figures singly, mostly on their own but in one or two it seemed right to add something resembling a landscape, like the figure (above) on the left. Those marks might be trees, or stags, or …..

One of the big barn studios.

The first four Khadi images are below, drawn in Berlin and Dresden before I started my residency at Atelierhof Werenzhaim.

I went to the artist residency with four other Welsh women artists, Chris Bird-Jones, Sarah Hopkins , Rhiannon Rees  and Rhian Haf. We have been supported by Wales Arts International. We are all members of AGOR Abertawe, set up to facilitate creative activity between women artists in Swansea / South Wales, and the Brandenburg area. We were mostly at the Atelierhof Werenzhaim, an artist community founded in 1996 by artists from East and West Germany in a 14th century former feudal tavern estate.

Private View: In These Stones (new date).

THE PRIVATE VIEW IS NOW ON TUESDAY, JULY 30th AT 7pm. You are very welcome to join the artists at the launch of our exhibition in Aberdare.

I spent three years travelling cross South Wales with Rhondda pre-historian Dewi Bowen and Swansea filmmaker Melvyn Williams, drawing and painting Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age stone monuments. Dewi was researching for his new book “Hunting The Wild Megalith” and I, initially along for the ride, found myself inspired by the ancient landscape formed by the stones.

My beginnings in an inner-city slum and a Swansea council estate are far removed from this landscape of the Mabinogion. My artwork, honed by my studies at Swansea School of Art in the 1970s, tends to be more concerned with the cityscape and the people who inhabit it, with a smattering of class politics, for example, my latest work is a series of drawings, screenprints and linocuts inspired by the South Wales Miner’s Wives in the 1984-1985 strike.

However, the ancient peoples spoke to me across the eons. There are many theories of why the stone monuments were created but I see them with an artist’s eye, they are placed beautifully and aesthetically within a specific geographic location. 

These drawings and paintings have been in a number of exhibitions and some feature in Dewi Bowen’s book, “Hunting The Wild Megalith” and Melvyn William’s film of the same name. To see them reinterpreted in glass by Deanne Mangold is thrilling.

Working Small

During my artist residency in Germany a couple of weeks ago (is it that long already?) I made over a hundred drawings on a very large piece of paper (see here) and with a couple of days to go before coming home, I retreated to the tiny studio space in an ancient stable and worked on very small (A5) pieces of Khadi paper. I carried on drawing from my imagination with twigs dipped in ink, but focused on placing a single figure on each sheet, in isolation, rather than grouped together as they had been on the big sheet.

I was recently in Germany on an artist residency with four other Welsh women artists, Chris Bird-Jones, Sarah Hopkins , Rhiannon Rees  and Rhian Haf. We have been supported by Wales Arts International. We are all members of AGOR Abertawe, set up to facilitate creative activity between women artists in Swansea / South Wales, and the Brandenburg area. We were at the Atelier-Werenzhain, founded in 1996 by artists from East and West Germany, in a 14th century former feudal tavern estate.

Big Paper And Footy Fans…

I finished drawing my imaginary figures with bamboo pens and bits of twig. There are loads of them, I haven’t counted – yet. I had to cut the paper into 3 pieces so that I could fit it all into a manageable tube to bring back on the train – a 16 hour journey via Eurostar. You can see the size of the paper next to the decking and chair. The train journey back was entertaining. It was fairly quiet from Doberlug-Kirch to Berlin but when we changed there for Cologne it seemed like THOUSANDS of English football fans travelled with us. They were very subdued after the Euros final, and very nice, no problems. We kept seeing the same faces all the way back to St. Pancras.

I was recently in Germany on an artist residency with four other Welsh women artists, Chris Bird-Jones, Sarah Hopkins , Rhiannon Rees  and Rhian Haf. We have been supported by Wales Arts International. We are all members of AGOR Abertawe, set up to facilitate creative activity between women artists in Swansea / South Wales, and the Brandenburg area. We were at the Atelier-Werenzhain, founded in 1996 by artists from East and West Germany, in a 14th century former feudal tavern estate.

Twiglets On The Move…

I’m back from Germany and I’m starting to take a look at the work I did on the artist residency. Working on a BIG sheet of paper, I continued drawing with twigs and ink, moving away from placing them in rows and starting to bring them forward. They’re starting to look a bit like zombies now 😀 . I used a new twig and that’s what happened.

I’m in Germany on an artist residency with five other Welsh women artists, Chris Bird-Jones, Sarah Hopkins , Rhiannon Rees  and Rhian Haf. We have been supported by Wales Arts International. We are all members of AGOR Abertawe, set up to facilitate creative activity between women artists in Swansea / South Wales, and the Brandenburg area. We’re at the Atelier-Werenzhain, founded in 1996 by artists from East and West Germany, in a 14th century former feudal tavern estate.

Strange Twig People.

I continued drawing with twigs and ink across my huge sheet of paper, gradually filling it with strange, twisted twig people. These are coming from my imagination now, I’m not thinking them into existence. I scribbled into some of them with the thin end of a bamboo dip pen, while the ink was still wet.

I’m in Germany on an artist residency with four other Welsh women artists, Chris Bird-Jones, Sarah Hopkins  and Rhiannon Rees  with support from Wales Arts International. We are all members of AGOR Abertawe, set up to facilitate creative activity between women artists in Swansea / South Wales, and the Brandenburg area. We’re at the Atelier-Werenzhain, founded in 1996 by artists from East and West Germany, in a 14th century former feudal tavern estate.