A Recycled Lady!

  I often use discarded prints as the basis for drawing – I raid the waste paper bin at Swansea Print Workshop for prints that other artists have thrown away as they’re usually on really good paper, a Somerset or Bockinford, and often embossed and coloured which makes an interesting starting point for a drawing,Continue reading “A Recycled Lady!”

I Don’t Often Paint But….

I don’t often paint as I have a printmaker’s brain which I think is wired differently to the painter’s brain. I prefer to draw and I get frustrated by dragging a bit of paint across a surface with a brush. This piece started as a small sketchbook lifedrawing which I then worked up into aContinue reading “I Don’t Often Paint But….”

Homage To Women Veterans.

  A couple of years ago, my dear friend and neighbout died. She was in her ’90’s and was a veteran of World War Two, leaving her quiet village in West Wales to enlist in the Women’s Royal Naval Service, the W.R.E.Ns. After a posting to the Isle of Man, she was stationed in SwanseaContinue reading “Homage To Women Veterans.”

A Friend, A Kitten And A Lot of Old Prints.

  I was working with an artist friend, we were exchanging modelling hours and I built up a large collection of life drawings of her and started wondering what to do with them, whether they could form the basis of new pieces of work. I also had some large sheets of very good paper thatContinue reading “A Friend, A Kitten And A Lot of Old Prints.”

Etching with Hogarth!

  I like to draw from life and always carry a small sketchbook. I’m enormously inspired by the work of William Hogarth, who catalogued daily life in the 1700s with his meticulous metal engravings. This is a drypoint from a paper plate based on a sketch I did in a tiny Cotman sketchbook. It’s theContinue reading “Etching with Hogarth!”

All Day at the Print Studio.

  Very busy day today at the printmaking studio in Swansea. Made two full-colour monotypes, plus two ‘ghosts’. Have been on my feet for 7.5 hours and I’m shattered, but reasonably happy with the results. I based the monotypes on drawings made from life with a professional model. The prints are made in oil-based pigmentContinue reading “All Day at the Print Studio.”

Pooped at the Printfair!

  A drawing in my Tate Postcard sketchbook from my trip to NYC to see the International Print Fair a couple of years ago. We had been walking around Manhatten for days, going to exhibitions, talks and demonstrations of printmaking and we were pooped! We holed up in this very modernist cafe near the BloomsburyContinue reading “Pooped at the Printfair!”

Japanese Barens [artgeeky stuff]

When I visited the International Print Fair in New York City a couple of years ago, I went to a demonstration of Japanese woodblock printing by the artist Takiyi Hamanake [I hope I spelled that right]. It’s a different way of printing; instead of rollering oil-based ink onto the cut block, you brush glue ontoContinue reading “Japanese Barens [artgeeky stuff]”

Scribbling Kitties

  Sometimes it’s nice just to scribble. I normally have a very structured approach to drawing; very analytical and finished. Now and again it’s good to loosen up and have a scribble. One day I was sitting an exhibition at elysium gallery and I started scribbling randomly in a tiny sketchbook. The scribbles built upContinue reading “Scribbling Kitties”

Enter Rocky The Dragon and The Suicide Method.

  This is a very geeky blog today. I was chatting to some printmakers on LinkedIn earlier about the ‘suicide’ method of block printing [we love talking technique], where you produce a multi-coloured print using the same block, by progressively cutting away each colour. You end up totally destroying the block, so there’s little roomContinue reading “Enter Rocky The Dragon and The Suicide Method.”