Private View: In These Stones (new date).

THE PRIVATE VIEW IS NOW ON TUESDAY, JULY 30th AT 7pm. You are very welcome to join the artists at the launch of our exhibition in Aberdare. I spent three years travelling cross South Wales with Rhondda pre-historian Dewi Bowen and Swansea filmmaker Melvyn Williams, drawing and painting Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age stone monuments.Continue reading “Private View: In These Stones (new date).”

In These Stones…

A few years back, I worked with pre-historian Dewi Bowen and filmmaker Melvyn Williams on a series of drawings/paintings of ancient standing stones in South Wales. Stained-glass artist Deanne Mangold saw them and wanted to make some glass panels based on my originals. So she did. And now there’s enough to exhibit. Deanne and I,Continue reading “In These Stones…”

A Blast From The Past…

From 2012, a sketchbook scribble of Oystermouth Castle in Mumbles at the western edge of Swansea. I used to do a lot more drawing en plein air directly into sketchbooks, but I fell out of that daily practice during the Covid19 lockdowns and I haven’t really got back into it. I should, it’s good forContinue reading “A Blast From The Past…”

One From The Archives ….

One of my favourite places is Paviland, a strange otherworldly cove on the coast of the Gower Peninsula which is the site of the Goat’s Hole Cave, famous for the skeleton of the  “Red Lady of Paviland“, which is actually a young man. From the main road, it’s a fair walk across fields via aContinue reading “One From The Archives ….”

The Last Of The Annual Cockling.

Here’s the final tiny quick sketches I did in my little leather-bound sketchbook on Sunday. I was at Rosehill Quarry’s annual meet-up to tidy the Cretan Labyrinth. Each year the edges need to be recut, the old trampled cockle shells removed and new ones laid. The labyrinth was cut in 1987 when Swansea’s Rosehill Quarry wasContinue reading “The Last Of The Annual Cockling.”

More From The Annual Cockling.

A couple of very quick little sketches from the annual labyrinth maintenance at Rosehill Quarry. I had to work quickly because people moved fast. Very good practice though

The Annual Cockling.

Back in 1987 a Labyrinth was cut into the turf in Swansea’s Rosehill Quarry, a unique urban wildlife park. It was installed by Bob Shaw and local author and pre-historian Dewi Bowen. It’s based on an ancient Cretan design and the incised path is filled with crushed cockle shells that are a by-product of the localContinue reading “The Annual Cockling.”

Strangeness On A Window

I’ve been doing a lot of sketching en plein air in the streets in the Waun Wen part of the city recently, and it’s surprising what you see when you stop and look. Really look, like you have to when you’re drawing. Here are two gnomes on top of a bay window in a littleContinue reading “Strangeness On A Window”

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”