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.

Branching Out…

Groan!!! Please pardon the awful pun! After drawing lots of small figures on big paper with two types of bamboo pen, I went out into the gardens at Atelier Werenzhaim and picked up some twigs (branching out – get it?). I chose one and dipped it into the pot of ink, emptied my mind and let my hand move and do the work.

These figures are so different to the others I did the day before, so rough, primordial, a bit frightening, a bit nightmarish. They go way beyond anything I would have done before. This residency is working for me, giving me the chance to try out things I never would have the time to do in my everyday life.

I’m in Germany on an artist residency with four other Welsh women artists, Chris Bird-Jones, Sarah Hopkins , Rhiannon Rees and Rhian Haf 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.

Go Big

I carried on with my little repetitive drawings on very large paper. It’s funny, last time I came to Germany I was inspired when I got back home to do huge drawings and now I’m in Germany working on huge paper again. I wonder why? 

Today I used the other end of the bamboo dip pen. It has a square blunt nib, quite big and it gave me a completely different effect to yesterday’s drawings. Some years ago, I did a residency in Boise, Idaho, USA and visited some ancient petroglyphs, small carvings on boulders. They are similar to these drawings but I had no thought of them when I was doing them, they are simply the product of the materials. 

Stick figures holding up big circles.

I’m in Germany on an artist residency with three 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.

Free The Mind

I’ve been at Atelierhof Werenzhaim for 2 days now, working in a studio that was once stables. I’ve been experimenting with drawing in ink onto very large paper. I continued the technique from my last post, when I was drawing in Dresden. I just emptied my head of thoughts and allowed my hand and pen to do their own thing. My first drawings are done with a bamboo dip pen with a pointy nib. I’ve covered about a quarter of the paper with them. They’re a bit ethereal but that’s the way the pen draws. Why are they humanoid figures? That’s just the way they’re coming out, maybe it’s something to do with decades of life drawing

Ethereal Figure Drawings.

I’m in Germany on an artist residency with three 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.

What Lurks Beneath?

I sat quietly in a park under the shade of a tree in Dresden. The temperature was 32°C and the other artists on the residency were visiting a museum. I decided to sit and draw, but not the view in front of me,  which is what I normally do when I travel.

Instead, I emptied the thoughts out of my head, took hold of a piece of graphite and drew. No idea, no concept,  no design,  just let my hand do its own thing. Then I added the blacks and oranges with Derwent Inktense blocks and a water reservoir brush.  This is interesting. I might do some more of this.

I’m in Germany on an artist residency with three 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.