Another of the bands at Hangar 18 at this year’s Swansea Fringe, Lurcher‘s bassist’s great expansive movements onstage got me scribbling frantically. At one point I had 3 drawings of him on the go as he moved around so much, I was determined to capture him on paper. It’s unusual to see such a lively bass player!
Celavi was the first band that Husb and I saw this Fringe season, in Hangar 18 and I drew Gwion, who has an extraordinary look, like a Neil Gaiman character interpreted by Dave McKean. The colour theme of the set is vivid pink and black so I used a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen and Inktense blocks in those colours. I wet the paper with a reservoir brush before applying the blocks on their side to get that chunky look, then I worked into the black with my fingers, the textures reflect my experience of the band’s music.
It was the annual Swansea Fringe again this weekend and I immersed myself in Heavy Metal, Rock and Scribbling at a couple of Swansea’s heavier venues. Here’s my first drawing of the Fringe, at Hangar 18, of the singer Sarah from the Bangor-based Nu-Metal band Celavi. She wore this amazing stage outfit of black PVC and pink tulle and I interpreted her with a black Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen, size 0.5, and a pink Inktense block used with a water reservoir brush.
I love drawing at gigs, the music and atmosphere influence me. It’s dark mind, and I can barely see the paper as I draw, and I have to work fast, so it’s a bit of a surprise the next day when I get to see what I’ve scribbled in the daylight.
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.
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.
I spotted another artist drawing in the room and I drew her. We were both lost in our sketches.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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