Hitting A Wall!

I’ve been working on and off with these 5 paintings for a few weeks and I’ve hit a brick wall with them! I deliberately set out to work from my imagination rather than from life, which is what I normally do. But I’m stuck – where to go with them now? Should I go representational? Should I go Expressionist? Fauvist? Pop Art? I’ll just have to get the paint out and push beyond this creative block.

The idea came originally from the triple goddess of Celtic mythology, The Morrigan is one of her legends, but with a modern twist. I’m using Somerset paper (300 gsm, 56 x 76 cms) prepared with a coat of acrylic gesso. The paint is Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic and the brushes are Daler Rowney Gold Taklon.

Having A Rummage.

I found these in a folder.

I was having a rummage through all my portfolios the other day, looking for something important that I never found – I’ve probably put it somewhere “safe” which means it’s on the other side of the Multiverse! But I discovered all sorts of things I’d forgotten about, including these 4 sheets of sturdy cotton rag papers that I’d prepared with gesso and my home-made walnut ink. Then I had a bit of a dribble with Liquitex white acrylic paint and more walnut ink, then I had a bit of a party with some Daler-Rowney soft pastels. Then I put them away and forgot about them. So what am I going to use them for?

Red Gelli

I spent a bit more time playing with a Gelli plate at Swansea Print Workshop this week, using a round plate, a bag that onions were in , Cranfield Safe-Wash Process Red relief ink and Extender onto offcuts of HoSho paper. I tend to use the Gelli plates to print papers for collage and chine collé. I’ll overprint these next week, maybe with a translucent Process Cyan.

Gigs And Scribbles: 5.

Here’s another small sketch from last week’s rock gig at Elysium in Swansea. I was listening to King Goon and scribbling as well, using a Faber Castell Pitt pen and Nitram charcoal. I spotted the hat and hood, great verticals and horizontals. It’s a very quick scribble, just getting down the essentials.

Gig And Scribbles: 4.

Another little sketch from the rock gig at Elysium in Swansea last Friday. I was listening to King Goon and scribbling as well, using a Faber Castell Pitt pen and Nitram charcoal. These sketches take one minute, two tops, sometimes just seconds. Speed sketching focuses you on the essentials of what’s before you, no time to be distracted by details.

Gig And Scribbles: 3.

And another little scribble from last Friday’s gig at Elysium in Swansea. I was listening to King Goon and having a scribble at the same time, using a Faber Castell Pitt pen and Nitram charcoal. Although it’s been grey and rainy, it’s still very warm so lots of guys still in shorts, which I find really interesting to draw.

Gig And Scribbles: 2

Watching the band ….

Another quick scribble of audience members at the recent gig at Elysium. It’s a cracking venue, loads of different music genres, plus poetry, comedy, life drawing, crafts, creative writing, a Welsh Learners’ cafe and art group, and, of course, the exhibitions over three galleries. Something for everyone.

Drawn with Faber Castell Pitt pen and Nitram charcoal.

Inspired By …. Ysbrydoli Gan …

After Arwel Micah.

I spend a couple of happy hours at Elysium in Swansea today, in an art class for Welsh learners. I speak and read Welsh a bit (yn tipyn bach) but struggle to go beyond conversational Welsh and into specialist topics. This session today looked at one of the current exhibitions, by Arwel Micah, very atmospheric semi-abstract landscapes in oils. We did some sketching from some of the artworks and then did a little acrylic painting inspired by the originals, bilingually. I loved it!

The next one is on September 30th if you fancy it and there will be two more after that before the end of the year, linked to an exhibition in one of the 3 galleries. And they’re FREE / AM DDIM!

Gig And Scribbles: 1

Husb and I popped into Elysium this evening for a cheeky slim-line tonic, and watched a rock band, King Goon. Of course, I had to have a scribble!

Street Metal: Playing Around.

Photocopied Graphite Rubbings.

I work part-time for a national charity as an art tutor with adult learners and yesterday I took a small group out and about to make graphite rubbings of “street metal” – manholes and stop cock covers. We used Koh-I-Noor graphite blocks (6B) onto Japanese HoSho paper.

When I got back, I photocopied some of the rubbings – the copier changed the colour from black/grey to shades of greyish blue and degraded the quality of the image a bit. I cut up some of these degraded images and played around with them on dark blue card.