I was at a meeting this evening, The Friends Of The Glynn Vivian Art Gallery’s Annual General Meeting, and I spotted this chap in a stripey shirt. Of course I had to have a scribble, in Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens into a smooth, cloth-bound A5 sketchbook.
Here’s a little scribble I did this evening at a public meeting in the Saint Thomas area of Swansea to look at objections to the proposed Skyline development on Swansea’s Eastside. If you want to take a look at the Planning Application Comments section, please click here.
I’m starting to develop a new linocut a part of a new group project by Swansea Print Workshop (more to come on this). The subject I have chosen is the South Wales Miners’ Wives during the strike in the 1980s. I knew one of the wives, she was featured in the film Pride, those women were so brave, I admired them so much at the time (still do) and I’ve wanted to do some art about their heroic struggle for a long time.
I started by Googling Miners Wives UK images and selected about a dozen that I thought had an interesting composition. These are for practice, to get familiar with the subject and to start the process of observation. One thing that strikes me about this one is how much bigger than the women the police are. I know men are generally bigger, but this image really brings it home to me. The women are little dwts. This is sketched in graphite into a Khadi sketchbook.
dinahvagina is a multi media artist living and working in Wales. Her work in this new #NoExcuse exhibition is about the horrifying death of Cuban American artist Ana Mendieta. She was pushed from / fell from/ jumped from the 34th floor of her apartment block. Her husband was charged with her murder but was eventually acquitted due to the suppression of witness statements and a non-jury trial.
#NOEXCUSE is an exhibition and a creative response to the topic of misogyny and the United Nations campaign against violence towards women and girls, featuring Welsh artists dinahvagina, Rosie Scribblah, and the RAD Collective.
November 25th 2023 to February 2nd 2024
Wednesdays to Sundays, noon til late
Cinema & Co.ffee, 17 Castle Street, Swansea SA1 1JF, 07305 908260
This mixed media piece, “Missing Women” is by The RAD Collective, a newly formed group of working-class creatives in South Wales that includes visual artists and writers who choose to work anonymously, “The first rule of the RAD Collective is you do not talk about the RAD Collective!”. Members of the Collective share ideas, resources, materials and concepts. Please click here to find out more about this work.
#NOEXCUSE is an exhibition and a creative response to the topic of misogyny and the United Nations campaign against violence towards women and girls, featuring Welsh artists dinahvagina, Rosie Scribblah, and the RAD Collective.
November 25th 2023 to February 2nd 2024
Wednesdays to Sundays, noon til late
Cinema & Co.ffee, 17 Castle Street, Swansea SA1 1JF, 07305 908260
A group show and beyond by Welsh artists dinahvagina, Rosie Scribblah, and the RAD Collective.
November 25th 2023 to February 2nd 2024
Wednesdays to Sundays, noon til late
Cinema & Co.ffee, 17 Castle Street, Swansea SA1 1JF, 07305 908260
#NOEXCUSE is a creative response to the topic of misogyny and the United Nations campaign against violence towards women and girls. It features works of mixed media, painting and collage by Welsh artists dinahvagina, me – Rosie Scribblah and The RAD Collective. But it’s not just an exhibition of artworks.
Over the coming weeks, we artists will be building interest and engagement on social media and using videos and QR codes to take the artworks beyond a gallery setting and ending with a “Closing Event” at the venue early in the New Year.
The United Nations campaign is called “The 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence” and it’s an annual international event that starts on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and runs until 10 December, which is Human Rights Day.
My series of acrylic paintings on paper in a bright Pop Art style, called SISTERS, are loosely based on the concept of the ancient Celtic Trinity of Goddesses, sometimes called The Morrigan.
There is a tradition of sisterhood in the UK, of women coming together to achieve progress, from the Suffragettes campaigning for the vote, to the grass roots creation of women’s domestic violence refuges, taking collective action. It reminds me of this ancient Celtic motif of multiple goddesses pulling together.
To see more about my work and the other artists, dinahvagina and The RAD Collective, click here and the United Nation’s #NoExcuse campaign.
I taught an adult education class this afternoon with the 9-to-90 Creative Community at the excellent GS Artists on Swansea’s High Street. The theme was to paint a portrait of the Divine Diva, Dame Shirley Bassey. In TWO hours! A bit challenging 😀 But we did it. The results will be in the venue’s next exhibition that opens 5pm on Friday 1st December.
Here are the stages of my practice painting, which was done in Liquitex acrylic paints onto a stretched and recycled canvas and came in at 1 hour 50 minutes. I might do some more work on it before entering it for the exhibition though, bling it up a bit, make the skin tones more subtle and equalise the eyelashes.
I’m working on a small portrait of a famous person for a teaching session I’m doing tomorrow ….. acrylic paint onto recycled canvas.
Sometimes you see a face and you’ve just got to sketch it. This guy was at The Jexit gig at The White Lion in Aberdare last week, grooving to the band. A face full of character.
I finished cutting my latest Mari Lwyd lino block, I’ve been doing one each winter for a few years now. I did the proof print a few days ago and I did a little bit more cutting, not much, and now I’m happy with the block so I’ve done the first few prints off it, most of them with chine collé.
I used lightweight tissues and metal foil (from sweets / candies) and a Pritt glue stick to apply the chine collé. I took the prints with a traditional Japanese baren using Cranfield Safe-Wash Relief ink in black onto Japanese HoSho paper.
scribblah 