I Forgot These….

A quick sketch to work things out.

Husb and I went walking up the mountains a few weeks ago, to Llyn y Fan Fach on Bannau Brycheiniog where I did some fairly detailed work with pastels onto painted paper. But before I started on the bigger pieces, I did a couple of hasty scribbles into my tiny leatherbound sketchbook, to work out what was there in front of me. And then I forgot about them! Here they are. They’re an important part of my arts practice, analysing what’s going on.

Really minimalist.

They’re very basic, minimalist, but they capture quickly the essential features that need to be recorded. The lake is the site of a Welsh famous legend … here.

Lost In Our Sketches.

Drawing a fellow sketcher.

I spotted another artist drawing in the room and I drew her. We were both lost in our sketches.

Faces In The Audience: 1

Interesting headwear.

Husb and I went to a memorial celebration for the life of a friend, Professor Jen Wilson, who recently died. There were lovely performances of jazz and blues music, which she had championed all her life and of course, I took the opportunity to have a scribble.

Eryri: Sketch And Film.

Here’s the last of my Eryri sketches, as we left the mountains on our journey back to the coast and Caernarfon. This vista had an extraordinary bright torrent of waterfall tumbling down the dark rocks, set against a strangely gleaming sky. Husb recorded this short film of me drawing on the little steam train – you can just see me in the reflection in the window. It was a great day out, sketching the chaotic weather from the comfort of the tiny train.

I had been struggling to find a medium and subject that suited my black paper sketchbook and these Sennelier and Daler Rowney soft pastels and the rugged mountains of Eryri are just perfect for it.

Eryri: 5

A Strange Backlight.

Travelling back from Beddgelert on the little steam train, the storm was lifting and although the winds were still high, the rain stopped and a strange light flooded Eryri, backlighting the mountains. I worked very quickly into my black sketchbook with Sennelier and Daler Rowney soft pastels, held on their side flat against the paper, which gives a very definite texture against the smooth surface.

Detail Of The Top Peaks.

Eryri: 4.

Bright Light In The Pass.

After a steep and spectacular climb up the mountains, Husb and I had a break in Beddgelert and the storm eased off while we were there. We strolled through the historic village and were stunned by the ferocity of the two rivers that meet there, Afon Colwyn and Afon Glaslyn. The recent storms had created a maelstrom of torrents where the two rivers surge together, one brown and muddy and the other clear and dark. After a pot of tea in the village cafe, we boarded the tiny steam train again and set off back across the Eryri mountains, which were now clear of heavy rain and glowed with a strange light behind the peaks.

A Strange Light.

Eryri: 3

The Forms Dissolve In The Rain.

I live in a very rainy country, but rarely represent the rain in my sketching …. because it’s miserable to stand in the rain and draw! And not very practical – paper gets soggy, colours run or slip around. That can be interesting, but it’s a lot of physical discomfort. So the journey on the little steam train from Caernarfon to Beddgelert the other day was brilliant as I could observe the fabulous mountain landscape immersed in a storm from the comfort of a warm, cosy carriage with tea and biscuits being served along the way.

The height of the storm.

This drawing was done at the height of the storm, the massive peaks disappeared in a chaos of whites and greys, yet the sun illuminated the vivid green vegetation nearest the train. This sketch is abstract because that’s how the landscape, momentarily, seemed to be. I guess this must be a bit like what the artist Turner saw. But not from a lovely little steam train though.

Eryri: 2.

A slight break in the rain.

Waking up to torrential rain and gale force winds on our short break to North Wales, Husb and I decided to ditch the planned walk along mountain paths and opt for a steam train ride from Caernarfon up the mountains to the legendary village of Beddgelert. It was pouring and windy outside but we were cosy on the little train, sipping hot tea as it puffed its way up through magnificent scenery. It’s a nice way to do some sketching too.

I’ve been wanting to use this black sketchbook for ages, I tried one or two things in gouache and they didn’t work out, but these Sennelier soft pastels are great. I peeled most of the paper off and used them on their side to get that blunt, blocky feel to the sketches that was similar to the Eryri landscape.

Eryri: 1.

Rain, sky and crags.

I took a blog break for a few days while Husb and I visited North Wales / Cymru Gogledd, such a gorgeous part of the country. The weather, however, wasn’t gorgeous, it poured with rain most of the days we were there. The upside is that the atmosphere was amazing, soft and smudgy, almost but not quite monochromatic and ideal for my black sketchbook and Sennelier soft pastels.

Screen Play.

Multi-layer silkscreen print.

I’ve been pushing myself into creative “play” in recent months, to loosen up my artistic practice and push out of my comfort zone. Today I had a play with silk screen techniques, courtesy of a free afternoon workshop at University of Wales Trinity Saint Davids …. or Swansea Art College as most people call it. The screens already had photostencil images on them, taken from graphite rubbings of street metal – manhole covers, watercock lids and drains.

A detail of the overlays.

We experimented with overlaying different screens with different colours, occasionally masking out areas with ripped and folded sheets of newsprint. The colours were pre-mixed so I had to work with what I was given, which was probably a good thing as I had less to agonise about! It was random and abstract, totally different to the way I normally work. I didn’t really like it until the last colour went on and then the whole thing seemed to tie together.