The Licking Stone

  I’ve been travelling around South Wales drawing ancestral stones since February and today I paid a return visit to Maen Llia. I loved it so much the first time that I wanted to go back and draw it again from a different angle and also to spend some time there absorbing the atmosphere. LastContinue reading “The Licking Stone”

Before And After

This is a piece of Fabriano Accademica paper, prepared with charcoal, acrylic paint and my home made walnut ink. And this is the same piece after I have visited an ancient monument and drawn it onto the paper in charcoal and Daler Rowney soft pastels.

The Giant

I went out drawing up the mountains in the Carreg Cennen area, at Tair Carn Isaf (The Three Lower Cairns). The area is covered in cairns, skipping over the countryside along rocky outcrops arranged like a spine across the landscape. In the distance is a rounded hill – I think it’s called Tri Grug –Continue reading “The Giant”

Bronze Age Piles Of Rocks

Drawing at  Tair Carn Isaf (the Three Lower Cairns) yesterday with Dewi the archaeologist and Melvyn the film maker. It’s a complex site made up of many cairns, large and small, with more in the distance, lining up along a number of large rocky outcrops gambolling across the landscape. The problem for me as an artistContinue reading “Bronze Age Piles Of Rocks”

Cairns, Castle And Garlic

Back to hunting the wild megalith in South Wales with archaeologist Dewi Bowen and film maker Melvyn Williams, visiting Neolithic monuments on the Trail Of The Boar, a legend from The Mabinogion. Today we took off to Tair Carn Isaf (the Three Lower Cairns) near Carreg Cennen Castle in Carmarthenshire. The cairns were a heftyContinue reading “Cairns, Castle And Garlic”

Prepping

I’ve been travelling around South West Wales with archaeologist Dewi Bowen and film maker Melvyn Williams, searching out ancient standing stones linked with the ancient Welsh legends in the book of the Mabinogion. When I started I just took along a sketchbook and some pieces of paper without much idea of how to approach drawingContinue reading “Prepping”

The Japanese Way

I normally use a printing press to take prints from the plates and blocks I make, but today I had a go taking prints by hand. It hinges on the alchemy between the right sort of ink at the right consistency and the right paper. I’ve been experimenting for a while but today I hitContinue reading “The Japanese Way”

Just Another Stone In The Wall

Here’s a quick video of me out drawing recently, one of the standing stones I’ve been visiting this year on a mission to draw many of the ancestral monuments on the Trail of the Boar Hunt (Y Twrch Trwyth), an ancient Welsh legend from The Mabinogion. It’s an unusual stone in a wall at YsbytyContinue reading “Just Another Stone In The Wall”

The Husb

Husb is so patient, being married to an artist means he is constantly under scrutiny and liable to be scribbled at any time. And he sometimes finds his way out of the sketchbook and into other media. This is a full-colour ‘stacking’ monotype based on a sketch I did of him when we were onContinue reading “The Husb”

Stones On Show

My very first solo show is coming up in September in the fabulous Workers Gallery in Ynyshir in the Rhondda Valley. Check out the details here. I have spent the past few months travelling across South Wales with Rhondda-born archaeologist Dewi Bowen and Swansea film maker Melvyn Williams, hunting the wild megalith, accompanied by my portable drawingContinue reading “Stones On Show”