Curry, Conversation And A Missed Blog!

  Didn’t do my daily drawing blog yesterday!!!!! I went out for the annual Life Drawing Group curry, to the rather excellent Vojon Restaurant in Swansea and by the time I got home it was way too late to blog. I thought I would have had enough time as we met at the curry houseContinue reading “Curry, Conversation And A Missed Blog!”

Printmaking All Day – Tired and Happy Now!

I spent a long day at Swansea Print Workshop today making a large full-colour monotype. It’s a technique used by the Impressionists – Degas and Monet used to work over their monotypes in oil pastels. I started with a drawing in my sketchbook that I’d done in life drawing group. It’s gone through several incarnationsContinue reading “Printmaking All Day – Tired and Happy Now!”

Squidgy Squiggles With My Fingers

  I’m not a painter. But sometimes I wander over to the dark side and have a go. Trouble is, I really don’t like paintbrushes. There’s just something a bit wussy about them. I like big fat sturdy Japanese rubber printmaking rollers and great big tins of stiff printmaker’s inks, not faffy little brushes andContinue reading “Squidgy Squiggles With My Fingers”

Mucky Hands and Monotypes.

I spent a happy morning yesterday making some direct line monotypes down at Swansea Print Workshop. The trick to getting a good result is to roll out your ink VERY very thinly. I used Intaglio Printmakers oil-based litho/relief ink in black and a Japanese rubber roller inked onto apiece of Perspex. Don’t be tempted toContinue reading “Mucky Hands and Monotypes.”

I Knows ‘Ew Luvs Me ‘Coz ‘Ew Buys Me Chips

  This large mixed media piece started as a simple life drawing in conte crayons onto Somerset paper [250gsm] that I had squeegeed with black acrylic System 3 ink mixed with pearlised and acrylic medium. This gave me a dark, uneven surface to work on. I collaged on some interesting hand-made papers I had knockingContinue reading “I Knows ‘Ew Luvs Me ‘Coz ‘Ew Buys Me Chips”

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!”