Beth Yw Cartref? House To Home.

I popped into the National Waterfront Museum this afternoon for the opening of a new exhibition, a small installation created by members of Crisis (Skylight South Wales), the homelessness charity based in Swansea. People who are currently or have recently been homeless are offered many services by Crisis, including an adult education programme covering subjects such as art and craft.

Some of the members have been working with the creative staff to develop and showcase this work, and came up with the concept of showing how a house can be turned into a home through making their own arts and crafts. Almost everything in the installation was designed and/or made by members – wallpaper, curtains, cushions, ceramics, small table, glassware and mosaics. Plus a range of wall art – paintings, pyrography and screen prints. It’s a gorgeous little exhibition, well worth a look-in as part of a visit to the museum on Swansea’s Marina.

First Ink.

First ink on a newly cut lino block.

I love that moment when I roll the first layer of ink onto a new lino block, seeing the image appear out of the light grey surface. It always gives me a thrill. It’s never the same again because when you clean the block at the end of a session, the light grey bits get stained with the ink.

This little block, is an experiment for a larger block which is inspired by the Welsh Miner’s Wives during the Miners Strike in the UK in the 1980s.

A First Proof

I did this first proof from a small lino block that is an experimental detail of a much larger image I am working on for something that’s a secret just yet. I wanted to try out different marks, especially using some of the tools I hardly ever look at. I’m liking the direction this is taking.

A Month Of Maris #17

Aaaaaaannnnddddd ….. another one. Here’s a quickie Mari Lwyd sketch in conté crayon into my brown paper sketchbook, from 2016. I think these very hasty sketches show the jollier side of the Mari Lwyd.

A Month Of Maris #16

Sometimes when I’m out and about sketching I have only a few seconds, maybe a minute or two, with a particular subject or pose, so I have to scribble away quickly, and the drawing often becomes very stylised. Here’s a Mari Lwyd from a few years ago, sketched at a Hen Galan pub crawl on the Gower Peninsula.

A Month Of Maris #15

Here’s an unusual view of a Mari Monotype, it’s all set up before I took the print. I inked an acrylic sheet, did the drawing of the Mari Lwyd onto it with cotton buds and brushes, and then laid some pieces of mulberry paper onto the surface to act as chine collé. This is the last view of it before putting a piece of paper over it and putting it through a press to take the print.

A Month Of Maris #14

Here’s another Mari Lwyd sketch from my archives, one from Gellionen Chapel in 2017, back in those heady days before Covid19. we’re creeping closer to Hen Galan, Mari Lwyd’s very own night, which also happens to be the “old” New Year. It’s drawn in black, sanguine and white conté crayons into a spiral bound A4 brown paper sketchbook.

Detail through an Adobe Photoshop filter.

A Month Of Maris #13

A monotype with chine collé.

Another of my  Mari Lwyd artworks from the archives that I’m posting up to her night, Hen Galan on January 13th. It’s a reduction monotype that I did back in 2016 from an original drawing in my sketchbook. This one is really menacing.

A Month Of Maris #12

A copper plate ready to ink and print.

Carrying on with my archival Mari Lwyds, here’s a rare chance to see a copper etching plate, done with Andrew Baldwin‘s B.I.G. technique known as “faux mezzotint” back in 2018, in the time before The Plague.

A Month Of Maris #11

The Pembroke Mari Lwyd.

We’re at that time of year when the old Welsh tradition of The Mari Lwyd / Y Fari Lwyd, is awakening from her slumbers ready for her night, Hen Galan, on January 13th – the New Year in the old Gregorian Calendar. This was drawn at the Gower Heritage Centre’s annual Wassail and Mari Lwyd Parade at the beginning of 2020, just before the Plague hit and life changed.

Drawn with conté crayons in black, sanguine and white.