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.

Playing With Concepts: Getting Used to It.

I took some digital photos at the  Wassail and Mari Lwyd parade in Chepstow yesterday and I’m using them to try out the CONCEPTS free graphics package. Husb downloaded it for me a few months back but I haven’t done much with it yet. It’s weird using a stylus and the angle of drawing onto the screen is a bit strange too. The airbrush is odd, it lets me cover some areas and not others. I suppose I should watch a YouTube tutorial, but I get so impatient.

 

Playing With Concepts: Mari Chepstow.

Husb and I went to Cas-Gwent, Chepstow, today for their local Wassail and Mari Lwyd parade. It was freezing and crowded, with nowhere to sit, so I decided to take some digital photos and when I got home, I fired up my laptop and tried out CONCEPTS, a free graphics package that Husb downloaded for me a few months back, but I’ve had no time to play with it so far. It’s fun – I did this quick sketch using, mostly, a continuous line technique.

Archive: A Collage In Cardiff.

I’m flicking through my archives, this is from 2017 when I went off to Cardiff to work en plein air, in the street in Mill Lane. Unusually for me I decided to work with collage. I don’t find collage particularly intuitive, it’s quite difficult for me as I normally draw everything. But now and again I push out of my comfort zone. I’m quite pleased with this one.

I used a mixture of prints that I didn’t like or hadn’t come up to scratch. And papers I had coloured myself with soft pastels. And it was one of the few days in Wales when it didn’t pour down with rain!