The Undiscovered

I’m in the process of redrawing the series of major drawings of ancient standing stones I did earlier this year. This is the Cockett Valley stone, undiscovered for thousands of years until woodland clearance in the 1970s took place to extend the school playing fields. It’s now out in the open, overlooking the small riverContinue reading “The Undiscovered”

Golden Light

I saw a brief interview on the television this evening with the actor Timothy Spall talking about his role in Mike Leigh’s film, Mr. Turner. He did a lot of art training for it and said that one of the things that has lasted is that he now looks hard at everything around him, noticingContinue reading “Golden Light”

Stone In Steps

  I’m using my sketchbook to redraw from my recent series of drawings en plein air of Neolithic standing stones. I’m trying to simplify them and get down to their essence, using conté crayons in black, sanguine and white. The sketchbook is an A4 size brown paper spiral bound from Seawhites of Brighton. My phoneContinue reading “Stone In Steps”

Redraw, Reinterpret

  I’m redrawing into my sketchbook from the series of drawings I did of Neolithic monuments across South Wales earlier this year. It gives me a chance to reinterpret the original work and see what comes out of it. I’m thinking maybe lino cuts?

Paring It Down

I did a series of drawings en plein air throughout the year, travelling across South Wales to draw Neolithic and Bronze Age stone monuments. I’m now redrawing them into a sketchbook because I want to pare them down, get to the essence of them, see what the vital details are and see what I comeContinue reading “Paring It Down”

Pushing Myself

I did a large series of drawings of Neolithic stone monuments throughout the past year, drawing en plein air, and I recently started to draw from the drawings to try to push mysef into more abstraction. I’m using three colours of conté crayon, white, black and sanguine into my new A4 size brown paper sketchbook.Continue reading “Pushing Myself”

Sketchbooking The Stones

I spent many days between February and August this year travelling across South Wales drawing ancestral stones, which were exhibited in The Workers Gallery in September. Today, I decided to break open my new brown paper sketchbook and conté crayons and started to redraw my previous work, not copying it but using it to developContinue reading “Sketchbooking The Stones”

Luscious Leftovers

Once upon a time, the printmakers of Wingtip Press in Boise, Idaho, USA  were cleaning out their flat files and found dozens of little scraps of printmaking papers jamming up the drawers. Realising they probably weren’t alone with the dilemma of what to do with all those too-precious-to-throw-out leftover paper scraps, they issued an invitationContinue reading “Luscious Leftovers”

Up The Workers

Up at The Workers Gallery in Ynyshir tonight at the opening of their Winter Group show. It’s fab. I have two pieces in the exhibition and quite a few more scattered around the gallery. The group show is a great mix of work, interpretations and inspirations based on a poem by Mike Church.

Random Faces In Random Places

It isn’t glamorous, being an artist. It’s a constant slog. Underpinning my art practice is a daily routine of just that, practice. And at the heart of that practice is simple drawing, usually in sketchbooks. I draw anybody, anywhere, at every opportunity. Random faces in random places.   I have a new piece of artContinue reading “Random Faces In Random Places”