My cat, Sparta Puss, has taken my laptop tray away from me. It’s one of those trays with a beanbag underneath and I left it hanging around with the beanbag side up one day recently, and since then it’s been hers!Here it is scribbled into my little notebook by Peter Pauper Press.
Drawing at gigs in the near dark is good practice as I have to squint to see the basic details of what’s in front of me and get them down quickly before people move too much. It sharpens my instincts and improves my drawing in the light. I did a load of drawings at the launch of Rufus Mufasa’s new album, “Fur Coats From The Lion’s Den” in Cardiff earlier this week with a 6B graphite stick into my little lined notebook by Peter Pauper Press.
Husb and I were out in Cardiff on Tuesday night, at The Moon venue, to see the awesome poet, Rufus Mufasa and her friends, a crazy crew of rappers, poets and musicians. Now I’m a headbanger and rock chick and I’m not usually in to any other sort of music but the hip hop and rapping scene in South Wales is amazing and I bought a non-rock / metal CD!!!! It’s Rufus’ album, “Fur Coats From The Lion’s Den”. It’s brilliant. Really brilliant. She’s immensely talented. You can hear it on YouTube but if you like it, please buy a copy because it’s so hard to make a living when you’re a creative.
Of course, I had a scribble. Craze The Jack is performing on the left and Jordan Da Cruz (I think) is leaning up against a wall on the right. It’s not easy scribbling in a very dark club, but it’s really good practice. And the rappers tend to jump around a lot so that’s good exercise too, capturing them in a few lines when they’re moving so much. I used a 6B graphite stick into my A5 lined notebook by Peter Pauper Press.
I went visiting today and had a scribble, of course. I don’t often do interiors and still life but I think that maybe I should do more. When I see historical paintings in galleries it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that these were paintings of modern houses and possessions in their day, a record of everyday life. This is a household getting ready for Christmas, with wrapped and unwrapped presents occupying every nook and cranny around the large flat screen TV. I drew this into my A5 cat lined notebook by Peter Pauper Press with a graphite stick.
I went to Rufus Mufasa’s album launch last night at Cinema & Co in Swansea and it was a fantastic explosion of word performance, so different to traditional poetry performances, so energetic and angry and joyous and funny and full of life. And so varied. She had invited lots of other performers to join her. Of course I had to have a scribble. In the dark. As you do. I used graphite stick into my A5 lined notebook by Peter Pauper Press. Here it is with Sparta Puss, who seems a bit miffed by it.
If you want to check out Rufus’ album, Fur Coats From The Lion’s Den, which is fantastic, please click here.
A Cubehead, based on a photograph by Kathryn Trussler
Husb and I went to Santa’s Parade in Swansea’s City Centre on Sunday evening. I thought the best float and costumes were the ones with @Swansea2021, our city’s bid to be UK City of Culture in 4 years time. Lots of artists made costumes to go along with the float, which was a gigantic mirrored cube on the back of a lorry, very effective. Which is why the artists became Cubeheads.
The @Swansea2021 Cube and bright-eyed aliens turn out for Santa. Photograph by Melvyn Williams.
I drew from a photograph by artist Kathryn Trussler into my A5 lined notebook, the Cat’s Meow Journal by Peter Pauper Press using a biro (ballpoint pen).
Greetings Humans. Sparta Puss here. I managed to get my paws on the furless she-ape’s pooter box while she’s washing my food bowls. And preparing my supper. And brushing excess fur from my favourite blankie. And going down the road to the hunting ground called the supermarket to hunt for my kitty biscuits. She’s a lazy mare!
Anyhoo, I was lying around on my second favourite blankie earlier and the female monkey was fiddling about with a stick with dirty stuff in it called a biro pen and she was moving it around and around on a bit of paper while staring at me. I like it when the hairless simians stare at me – it shows proper respect. Then she showed me all the bits of dirt on the paper and said it’s me! She’s an idiot.
Here I am reclining with the she-ape’s thing with paper in it. She calls it a sketchbook. It has cats over it. They don’t look as good as I do.
Husb and I visited relatives today and met the latest little addition to the family, a naughty Tortie called Lou Lou. She’s about 5 months old, shorthaired and looks like there’s some Siamese in her. She’s very leggy with big ears and a long nose and huge saucer eyes all wrapped up in a brindled tortoiseshell fur coat. And of course she’s made of tightly wound elastic bands with an uncanny ability to run up curtains. I scribbled into my little ‘Cat’s Meow Journal’ by Peter Pauper Press, it’s lovely to carry around with me, just the right size to be portable with a strong elastic band to hold it closed and a gorgeous cover of cat cartoons. The drawings were very quick, she doesn’t stay still for long.
It was the life drawing group’s annual Xmas curry last night at the excellent Vojon curry house. I had a Handi Lamb Polongwala with a Gobi Aloo – no rice or naan as I’m cutting back on refined carbs for a little while. I was still stuffed until lunchtime, a very late lunch too. Because there was a large group of us, we had to wait a while for our food, they cook everything fresh, so I did some quick scribbles to take my mind off the hunger pangs. The food was well worth waiting for though.
I used a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen into my little Peter Pauper Press ‘Cat’s Meow Journal’. It’s a very sweet sketchbook, i really like it. Sparta Puss doesn’t seem too impressed though. She’s studiously ignoring it.
Getting back to basics with some quick scribbles in my sketchbook. I nobbled Husb as he was watching TV this evening and did three sketches, each about 2 minutes, with a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen, size S, into my little Peter Pauper Press notebook.
Coming up in August – I’m running a weekend printmaking workshop inspired by Frank Brangwyn , one of my artistic heroes. An outstanding draughtsman, painter, printmaker, muralist who exhibited with the Viennese Secession but unlike Klimt and Schiele, Frank had the mis/fortune to live to a ripe old age and fall out of fashion; he’s due […]
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