Big Pants, Burkini And The Nightwalker

Another glorious day, temperature around 30 Celsius, a heatwave!!! Husb and I went down to the beach again this evening, when it had cooled off a little and for the first time in years I went into the sea for a splash about. I can’t swim and our summers are usually so miserable that IContinue reading “Big Pants, Burkini And The Nightwalker”

Hipster On The Beach

It’s been a glorious day – the Summer has returned and it was too hoy to go out comfortably until this evening – earlier today it reached the upper 20s! Which is very hot for gingery, freckly, pasty Northern Europeans like me and Husb. We took a stroll along Swansea Beach and I had aContinue reading “Hipster On The Beach”

We’ve Got Palm Trees

Yes, we have palm trees all along the beach front and in many parks. They grow well here because the Gulf Stream swirls up around our coast and into Swansea Bay. It means the temperatures are pretty warm for this latitude but it’s also very damp as well. Husb and I went for our regularContinue reading “We’ve Got Palm Trees”

Boop That Little Nose

Our great-nephew is having a sleepover and of course he got scribbled! He was contentedly playing with his iPhone which reflected light back onto his face. He’s at that stage where he’s no longer a little boy but not quite a teenager and his face still has some of the softness of a child, butContinue reading “Boop That Little Nose”

Siadwel Live!

Husb and I managed to get hold of two audience tickets for a radio show recording at the BBC featuring the comedian John Sparkes’ character  Siadwel (pronounced Shadwell). We’ve been fans for years and think he’s one of the most underestimated comedy actors in Britain so it was a real treat for us to beContinue reading “Siadwel Live!”

Hostility

This is my 6th month travelling around South Wales, following the legendary Trail Of The Boar Hunt from The Mabinogion and drawing the Neolithic monuments on its track and up until now we’ve only had the weather to contend with. But on our last day out we had a miserable day of relentless hostility directedContinue reading “Hostility”

A Subtle Intervention

We went to find a long barrow hidden in a field of corn. There was supposed to be a public footpath but it had been planted over so we walked around the edge of the field until we reached the elevated ground in front of a copse of trees where there was a raised areaContinue reading “A Subtle Intervention”

The Caged Stones

Last week I was back out on my journey across South Wales to find ancient monuments on the Trail Of The Wild Boar (Y Twrch Trwyth) from the legends of The Mabinogion. This is another of a very few stones now in an urban setting, just outside the Bowls Club in Bridgend. This particular stone isContinue reading “The Caged Stones”

When Things Go Wonky

  Here’s the last of the drawings I did at last week’s life drawing session. It was an awkward pose to draw with some odd foreshortening and no matter how hard I tried to observe and draw, I couldn’t quite get it right. Never mind, it’s the practice that matters.     I’m working onContinue reading “When Things Go Wonky”

Building A Head

I worked on a portrait drawing during one of the poses at life drawing session the other evening, using compressed charcoal and white soft pastel onto brown paper. I like using tinted paper as the mid-tones are a given and I find it easier to work in highlights and lowlights on top of an existingContinue reading “Building A Head”