I circled Arthur’s Stone yesterday, making three drawings of this Neolithic monument. Although the popular English name links it to King Arthur (its Welsh name is Maen Ceti), it is far older than the Arthurian legend, which was written down in the 12th Century C.E. It is thought that the story of Arthur might referContinue reading “Follow The Bear”
Tag Archives: drawing
People Watching
I tend to go through phases when I make prints, making a sequence instead of random one-offs. This helps me to focus on subject matter, developing a theme and also lets me explore the technique. I did this series a couple of years back, combining transfer prints with drawing. I have hundreds, maybe thousandsContinue reading “People Watching”
Boy And Spear
Yesterday I went to a local ancient site, Parc le Breos on the Gower Peninsula with Husb and one of our young nephews. There was a day of ancient events going on, showing how people lived many of thousands of years ago. We saw a flint knapper who made a stone axe-head in about 20Continue reading “Boy And Spear”
Birds And Burial Chamber
The final drawing from Thursday’s field trip visiting some of the many ancient stones of South Wales. I hadn’t realised how many there are across the country. Our ancestors left a huge amount of monuments across the Neolithic and Bronze Age landscape. This is the Carn Llechart chambered tomb, just a hundred yards or so NorthContinue reading “Birds And Burial Chamber”
Sleeping Giant, Black Stones
Here’s another drawing I did yesterday on my journey around sites of ancestral stones in South Wales, using carbon and white conte crayon onto Fabriano Accademica paper prepared with homemade walnut husk ink. We travelled up the Swansea Valley, past Ystradgynlais and on to Abercrave where we stopped for a few minutes to show theContinue reading “Sleeping Giant, Black Stones”
Stone Circle And Lark Song
Back to the ancestral stones today with a brisk walk up Mynydd Llechart above Pontardawe to the Carn Llechart cairn circle. It’s been a gorgeous day, quite warm and very bright and sunny, deep blue skies with no clouds. The larks hovered and sang all around us and we met some jolly dog walkers, despiteContinue reading “Stone Circle And Lark Song”
The Ratter
I’m tired and haven’t had a chance to do any drawing today – I’ve been slaving over a computer since this morning so I’m blogging a drawing of Sparta Puss I did a while back. She’s a fanatical hunter and she’s one of those cats who brings their prey home alive and sets the unfortunateContinue reading “The Ratter”
The Liminal Place
Out and about visiting ancient sites in and around the Rhondda Valley, we stopped on the way from Hirwaun to Treherbert to look around the Hendre’r Mynydd Iron Age settlement. It’s a bit more modern than the ones we’ve been visiting, probably less than 3000 years old. My travelling companion, archaeologist Dewi Bowen, described itContinue reading “The Liminal Place”
Rocking!
Carrying on with our search for ancient monuments, we came across this famous one on the hillside above Pontypridd. It’s The Rocking Stone, or Y Garreg Siglo in Welsh. This seems to be two massive stones laid one on top of the other, probably a glacial erratic placed by a glacier in the last IceContinue reading “Rocking!”
The Drinking Stone
The spectacular Maen Llia standing stone near the village of Ystradfellte at the junction of two valleys, possibly a marker stone on an ancient trackway. It’s a huge diamond shaped conglomerate slab, probably from the Bronze Age and local legend says that the stone drinks from the nearby stream on Midsummer morning. I drew ontoContinue reading “The Drinking Stone”