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”
Tag Archives: Neolithic
Drawing The Stones
I’m continuing to work on a series of drawings of ancestral monuments across South Wales and here are the drawings I’ve done so far on my travels with archaeologist Dewi and film maker Melvyn. I’m chuffed with the range of the drawings and the way my work is developing into a more expressive style overContinue reading “Drawing The Stones”
The Stoneless Ring
The final drawing from last Sunday’s trek around ancient ancestral sites took us up a mountain to the Pentre’r Bebyll ring cairn up above Pontarddulais. At 860 feet, the summit of Mynydd Pysgodlyn was really cold and I was already chilly from doing the two previous drawings at Bryn y Rhyd and Graig Fawr. ThisContinue reading “The Stoneless Ring”
The Maenhir on Bryn Y Rhyd
Another site of ancient significance, a large standing stone in isolated magnificence in a field, this is the Bryn-Y-Rhyd maenhir/menhir near the village of Llanedi in Carmarthenshire. Maenhir is Welsh for long stone and this is a pretty massive specimen, towering over Dewi and Melvyn. I drew with carbon and white conte crayon onto a pieceContinue reading “The Maenhir on Bryn Y Rhyd”
Ponies And A Monstrous Cat
Out again today exploring ancient neolithic monuments in South West Wales, quite near to home this time. Our first stop was a fair hike up Graig Fawr (Big Rock) mountain near Pentrebach (Little Village) not far from Pontarddulais near Garreg Llwyd (Grey Rocks) farm in the County of Swansea. We walked in the freezing weatherContinue reading “Ponies And A Monstrous Cat”
Arthur’s Table
Up a mountain (Mynydd Llangynderyn), over a ridge, through a bog to a pair of small sub-megalithic burial chambers next to each other under a rocky outcrop. Together the pair is known as Bwrdd Arthur (Arthur’s Table). This is the western burial chamber, called Gwal y Filiast (Kennel of the Greyhound Bitch), which is theContinue reading “Arthur’s Table”
Channelling Cezanne
Each ancient stone monument I visit on my travels across South Wales affects me in different ways and this is being reflected in my drawings. Here at the Neolithic ring cairn atop Mynydd Llangyndeyrn, Carmarthenshire, the angular stones contrasted sharply with the grassy hummocks surrounding them. I’m not interested in doing topographical drawings, I wantContinue reading “Channelling Cezanne”
Myrddin’s Quoits
I’m continuing to work on a series of drawings done in the field, quite literally, of ancient stone monuments in West Wales, linked with the legends of the Mabinogion. This is Myrddin’s Quoits. Myrddin is the Welsh version of Merlin, who is a major figure in Welsh / ancient British mythology. I visited these stones,Continue reading “Myrddin’s Quoits”
The Greyhound’s Kennel
This is the first of the ancient stone monuments I drew a couple of days ago when I was trekking around muddy Carmarthenshire with an archaeologist and a film maker. The Welsh name is Twlc Y Filiast which translates as the Kennel of the (female) Greyhound, but the monument is also known as Arthur’s TableContinue reading “The Greyhound’s Kennel”
The Blue Stones
I’ve been thinking about how to develop the drawings I did last weekend in North Pembrokeshire. I have seven drawings from four different Neolithic sites and I thought that one or two of them might look good as cyanotypes. Cyanotype is an archaic form of photography invented in early Victorian times by Sir John HerschelContinue reading “The Blue Stones”
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