Tag Archives: art

Feathery Fidgety Fellows

I’m part of an artist collective called Commensalis that aims to organise pop-up exhibitions in quirky places to get our work seen by a good cross-section of people, not only dedicated artanistas. We’ve found a geat mortuary chapel in Bath, UK and we’re busy raising some money through crowd-funding to cover the costs of puttingContinue reading “Feathery Fidgety Fellows”

Nude And Flower

Here’s a life drawing of one of our older models; a retired teacher who is covered with tattoos. I drew her in Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens and black and white conte crayon, onto a piece of mountboard that I’d prepared with a couple of coats of acrylic gesso and then randomly sponged some IndianContinue reading “Nude And Flower”

Recycled Head

At the print workshop we work with some beautiful papers and always use the best quality for the courses we run. It’s surprising how many people never collect their work afterwards. Even if they don’t like the image, there’s a lovely – and expensive – piece of paper that can be used again. I’m alwaysContinue reading “Recycled Head”

The Bedroom Tax

People outside Britain might not have heard of this, but it’s a very unpopular and divisive new tax affecting the poorest people in society. If you are living in a public-sector home with more than one bedroom and receive welfare benefits you’ll lose at least 14% of your housing benefit. This is a significant amountContinue reading “The Bedroom Tax”

The Final Piggahs

Here are the last of my scribblings of pigs down on the farm in Pontyates. Some more drawings of Arthur and Mango, two of the Mangalitza pigs; Mangalica in it’s native Hungarian, one of three breeds of curly-haired hog originally bred in Hungary. There is a third Mangalitsa, a ginger sow called Lisa, but sheContinue reading “The Final Piggahs”

More Pontyates Piggahs

Husb and I visited some friends on a small farm in Pontyates yesterday and I drew their pigs. They have three Mangalitzas billeted in their woodland, two of them showed up for their barley and hay snackage; the ginger one was shy and stayed away. I scribbled the other two who are very different toContinue reading “More Pontyates Piggahs”

Pontyates Piggahs

Husb and I spent a happy few hours with Illtud and Liesel at their farm in Pontyates and I took the opportunity of sketching their pigs. Illtud also writes an excellent blog about being an artisan charcutier, but vegetarians might find it a bit much. I started off by sketching some of the little pedigreeContinue reading “Pontyates Piggahs”

Fanny’s Demise

Had a really packed day and this afternoon Husb and I went to Swansea’s Central Library for a talk about Fanny Wollstonecraft, daughter of the 18th century feminist Mary and half sister of the author of Frankenstein, Mary Godwin-Shelley. I’d never known that she had died in Swansea, committed suicide at the age of 22.Continue reading “Fanny’s Demise”

Back To Basics

I’ve been trying to push out of my comfort zone at Life Drawing group for a while now. Last night I pulled out a piece of very heavy and textured hand-made paper, a bit bigger than A4, that I’d prepared with acrylic gesso overlaid, when dry, with compressed charcoal and then sealed with spray fixative.Continue reading “Back To Basics”