Faking van Gogh

And another bit of fakery! This time it’s van Gogh’s “Fishing Boats on the Beach (at Saint Marie)” from 1888. I’m about halfway through it. I love copying van Gogh, I’ve always loved his work, since I was a schoolkid, and it is joyous as well as instructive to do these paintings. I started itContinue reading “Faking van Gogh”

Copying, Creativity, Cheese And Wine

I’m carrying on faking this Monet, “Cliffs At Grainval”, but it still needs more work. Not a lot, just a bit more faffing should do it. I started it on Friday with Ed Sumner’s Cheese and Wine Painting Club on Facebook. He’s been running it weekly since lockdown began over a year ago and it’sContinue reading “Copying, Creativity, Cheese And Wine”

Friday Fakery

It’s Friday again so I joined in with the weekly Cheese and Wine Painting Club on Facebook at lunchtime. It’s run by painter Ed Sumner who has kept it going every week since lockdown started. Today’s fake is “Cliff At Grainval”, a painting from 1882 by Claude Monet. I’m about half way through. A ChanceContinue reading “Friday Fakery”

Finally Finished Faking Frida

I finally finished faking Frida! I started this weeks ago on a Zoom tutorial with Ed Sumner of the Cheese and Wine Painting Club on Facebook. The original is a modern painting by an artist called Nettsch. I need more practice with foliage and birds, they were much harder than the figure. It’s painted inContinue reading “Finally Finished Faking Frida”

Making Mari My Own

I’ve finished putting my flat pack Mari Lwyd together and now I’m customising her. I had a roll of banana paper knocking around so I ripped it up into small bits and pasted it over the surface with PVA glue. I wanted something more interesting than plain white. The Mari Lwyd is a very old WelshContinue reading “Making Mari My Own”

A Mari Lwyd Day

I wasn’t feeling too well yesterday so didn’t do much of anything at all but I bounced back today with my two Mari Lwyd projects. I printed my lino block, in black Caligo Cranfield Safewash relief ink, individually onto white card and then in blocks of four onto A4 sheets of hand made paper madeContinue reading “A Mari Lwyd Day”

More Making Mari

The flat pack Mari Lwyd kit I’m making up isn’t difficult, but it’s time consuming. I’ve assembled the upper and lower parts of the skull and now I’m pasting it all over with paper and PVA glue. This will give it a good surface for painting, increase the strength of the sections and add aContinue reading “More Making Mari”

Making The Mari

I carried on making up the Mari Lwyd kit that I bought from TRAC Cymru, the Welsh folk development organisation. It’s been beautifully designed by the artist and storyteller David Pitt and the instruction video is easy enough to follow, but it’s an elaborate piece and needs time and care. The upper skull is nowContinue reading “Making The Mari”

A Flat Pack Mari

This is my Xmas present to myself, a Mari Lwyd flat pack kit. I’ve wanted a Mari Lwyd for ages but it isn’t easy to get a horse skull these days, since the internal combustion engine took over from carts. This kit has been designed by Swansea-based artist David Pitt AKA The Crowman AKA DaiContinue reading “A Flat Pack Mari”

The First Proof

I did some more carving on my new Mari Lwyd linocut this afternoon, more or less finishing the head. I thought I’d take a first proof print to see what else needs to be done to the head and to have a think about what, if anything, I might do to the rest of theContinue reading “The First Proof”