I managed to kill two birds with one stone this evening, simultaneously doing a sketch for tonight’s blog and reaching Number 94 out of my target of drawing 100 Baby Boomers. Husb and I went to Swansea Storytelling Club and I scribbled while listening to artist and performer David Pitt. David and I have been trying to find time for me to draw him for the Boomers series for ages and it happened quite by accident. Result!
And edging nearer by the minute – next Monday …….
Some manholes are much bigger than others, big enough to get a man down a hole. Here’s one printed by The Plebeian Printmakers the other weekend at the Gwyl Troublemakers Festival. You can get an idea of it’s size by looking at my ridiculous Bagpuss slippers at the bottom.
And coming soon to Cinema & Co…….
Some manholes are not manholes at all. They’re too small to get a man down. While I was doing some public printmaking with The Plebeian Printmakers a couple of weekends ago, we saw all sorts of manhole covers, big and small and this lovely one was one of the smallest.
We were puzzled by it because it has that number 8 on it and there was no keyhole so it didn’t give access to anything underground. My fellow Plebeian Printmakers, Lynne Bebb and Hannah Lawson found a similar one with the number 16 a bit further down Swansea’s High Street.
They did some investigating later on and found that there are lots more in the area, seventeen in all, marking out a virtual tour of Medieval Swansea – you can find it here.
And rushing up faster than I would like ….. because I have to get stuff ready for it …. ERK!!!!!! Please come if you can 😀
Manholes can be quite fancy but some are no-frills and this is one of them. But I like the typography. It’s done in metal. That’s the British Kite Mark on the bottom. I used a blue non-toxic water-based printing ink by Seawhites of Brighton, very economical.
No time to rest ….. this is coming up in a few days …..
I did some prints from street manhole covers along Swansea’s High Street as part of the Gwyl Troublemakers Festival a couple of weekends ago. I worked with some other printmakers from Swansea Print Workshop and we inked up all the way along the street. We wanted not only to take printmaking out into public, it’s often closeted away in specialist studios, but we also wanted people to stop and look at the lovely designs under their feet.
These tell a history too, they come from different eras and have different purposes. They’re just as valid as the buildings, except people notice buildings more.
No time to rest ….. this is coming up in a few days …..
Here’s the last drawing I made at the Troublemaker’s Festival last weekend, in the pouring rain, with my fellow Plebeian Scribblers, Chris Harrendence, Patricia McKenna-Jones and Melvyn Williams. Here we are below. The sketchbooks got really wet and I had extra problems because I had stuck ripped brown paper into my book, but the soaking started peeling it off.
Photo courtesy of Gwyl Troublemakers Festival
Here’s a short film that Melvyn did of all the drawings we made…..
And no time to stop and rest …. on with the next thing ….. coming up at Cinema & Co ….
My sketchbook has finally dried out after the soaking I had with The Plebeian Scribblers last Saturday at the Troublemakers Festival. We stood in the rain for a couple of hours, drawing in public and it was, well, challenging. I thought it might dry very crinkled or mouldy but it’s not too bad. It’s been very warm weather which helped dry it quickly.
Here we are, from left to right, Chris Harrendence, me, Melvyn Williams and Patricia McKenna-Jones. I really like working with other artists. It can be a very isolated profession so it’s nice to get out and collaborate. We tried different drawing materials but we pretty much ended up using graphite blocks which dissolved into a lovely fluid line on the soaking paper.
Photograph courtesy of Gwyl Troublemakers’ Festival
No time for slacking, on to the next arty shenanigans – coming up on July 31st …….
An arty day, printing up a small vinyl block I cut some weeks ago. I’m working with prehistorian Dewi Bowen to produce a limited edition booklet for our event on July 31st at Swansea’s Cinema & Co. This is stage one…….
We’ve been travelling across the wilder spaces of South Wales for about 18 months with filmmaker Melvyn Williams, tracking down the wild megaliths for Dewi’s new book
Here’s a taste of things to come ….
HUNTING THE WILD MEGALITH: A FILM, A CONVERSATION, AN EXHIBITION
Monday July 31st, 6.00 – 7.30, Cinema & Co, Swansea
Looking happy (not) with my drawing board
Mud! Gales! Snow! Lurking ponies! Scary cattle! More Mud! That’s what you get when an artist, a prehistorian and a filmmaker go out and about over the South Wales countryside hunting ancient stone monuments.
This collaboration between Dewi Bowen , Melvyn Williams and me began back at the start of 2016 when Dewi enlisted us to travel with him to Neolithic and Bronze Age sites to research his latest book, “Hunting The Wild Megalith”.
Filmmaker Melvyn Williams with the Bryn Maen Farm stone
Eighteen months later, this meeting of minds has resulted in my current exhibition at Swansea’s Cinema & Co, a short film by Melvyn and the bulk of the research done for Dewi’s book. On July 31st my exhibition ends but on that last evening, Melvyn will be premiering his short film, at 6.30 and then Dewi will be in conversation with Melvyn, from 6.50, about the age-old mystery of Welsh standing stones.
Prehistorian Dewi Bowen lounges on an Iron Age settee
Here’s a trailer to give you a taste of what’s to come.
And the quirky and lovely Cinema & Co is showing cult 1970’s movie The Wicker Man from 8pm (please book tickets for the film online in advance).
And there will be cake!
For a limited period I am putting a new drawing of an ancient monument on my Artfinder gallery every day. If you’d like to check them out, please click on the image below or the Artfinder link at the top right of this page.
Look what I’ve got! Ner nerner ner ner! 😛
Husb and I did a road trip up to Ynyshir in The Rhondda Valley today and bought this gorgeous Victorian book press off the charming Mike. I’ll use it for lino and wood block prints. I don’t know the make or date of manufacture so if anyone out there knows, I’d be grateful for any information. There’s a very worn logo on it, with a Lion and the letter ‘D’ underneath. Nearly corpsed Husb when he carried it in from the car.
We also crammed in a visit to the re-opened Cynon Valley Museum and Gallery in Aberdare which is showing an exhibition by Gayle Rogers, ‘The Parochial Artist’, for another week. Gayle is also a founder of The Workers Gallery in Ynyshir so we popped in there as well. A grand day out.
For a limited period I am putting a new drawing of an ancient monument on my Artfinder gallery every day. If you’d like to check them out, please click on the image below or the Artfinder link at the top right of this page.
Sign up to receive a monthly-ish digest of arty shenanigans from artist Rose Davies. 
