Storm Damage: The Covid Archives 2.

About a week before the first Covid19 Lockdown began in Wales, Husb and I took a walk down to the West Pier at the mouth of the River Tawe – Abertawe in Welsh and also the indigenous name of Swansea. It had recently been wrecked in a ferocious storm so of course, I had to have a scribble. I used conté crayon in black, white and sanguine into a spiral bound sketchbook.

The damage was really serious but before any repairs could be started, the Pandemic hit and that was it for most of the next 2 years.

#Caturday Archive: Lockdown Sketch.

It’s almost 4 years since the Covid19 Lockdown began. I did quite a lot of artwork, although not the things I had planned to do. Most of my work for the 18 months of lockdown was quite light, in contrast to the grimness of the pandemic. On #Caturday Saturday, here’s Sparta Puss enjoying a snooze on a blanket in 2020. I drew her in conté crayons in white, black and sanguine.

And here she’s snoozing on my linocutting tools!!!!!

A Strange Thing Happened: The Covid Archives 1.

It’s nearly 4 years since the UK Covid19 Lockdown started. We didn’t know then that it would go on for nearly 2 years. A strange thing happened to me – I started to paint. I hadn’t done any painting since my early days at Swansea Art College back in the 1970s, but something about the Covid situation pushed me towards painting.

An Archaic Artform.

I’ve been cutting some small experimental lino blocks to try out different ideas for a new piece of artwork based on the Welsh Miner’s Wives in the Miner’s Strikes in the 1980s. I cut one based on a newspaper photograph and one featuring text from a song sung by women on the picket lines. I tried printing them together and I really like the result. It’s archaic, reminds me of the early days of printing in Europe when images and texts for books were carved into wooden blocks, before the invention of moveable typeface.

Inspired By P.P.P.

Back to Swansea Print Workshop this afternoon, third day in a row, carrying on with little experimental blocks researching my next print about the Miner’s Wives in the 1980s Miner’s Strike. I want to put some text into my work so I had a bit of a play with a lino block and some lettering inspired by the great printmaker Paul Peter Piech, an American artist who spent the last decade of his life in South Wales.

The wording is from a song the Miner’s Wives sang on the picket lines in South Wales.

Re-Visiting Monotype.

I spent a happy morning down at Swansea Print Workshop today, re-visiting a technique I used to do loads – it’s called the 3-Colour Reduction Monotype (or 3-Colour Stacking Monotype). I haven’t done this since before Covid19, over 4 years, maybe longer. Why does time shoot by so fast? I based this monotype on a very quick soft pastel sketch onto Khadi paper while I was travelling in Pakistan, a country of spectacular landscapes.

A Simple Beauty.

I picked an ivy leaf from my garden this morning and, using a technique called “frottage” I took this image. It’s simple but lovely. Just nature, a piece of paper and a lump of graphite.

Archive: Stuffed Birds at the Museum.

Here’s another one from the archives, a sketch in my homemade walnut ink. I was at Swansea Museum, studying from the permanent collection with other members of Swansea Print Workshop and these two stuffed bitterns captured my attention.

Archive: Trees In Early Spring

I’ve been rummaging through my digital folders and looking at old sketches. Here’s one from 2018, a sharp early Spring day in Dynefor Park near Llandeilo. A group of artists had travelled from the city to work in the arboretum there. I saw this lovely tree that had fallen over, but carried on growing, reaching upwards, battered and changed but still living.

A Monotype Afternoon

Left to right: Using a 4H Reeves pencil; a Faber Castell Pitt 4B graphite stick: a KohiNoor 2B graphite block.

I spent a happy afternoon at Swansea Print Workshop today, doing some direct line monotypes (aka linear, trace). It’s a technique I used to do lots, but haven’t for ages, I don’t know why. I’m developing a composition for a linocut inspired by the Miners Wives from the Welsh strikes from the 1980s and these little ones are helping me get used to the drawings and mark-making.