This is getting to be a recurring theme, with the cold and very wet winter and I suspect, commercial premises turning the heating down a degree or two. Here are two of the people listening to artist talks at the Elysium Gallery and Bar this evening, given by Mark Folds and Bourdon Brindille. They were discussing their current exhibitions, “Crises” and “Breakage and Repair”, both excellent, clever, well made, interesting and with a bit of humour. The shows run until April 18th and are worth a look if you’re in Swansea. The Gallery bar and cafe also serves hot food, home cooked and really tasty.
The Final Touch
25 Feb
The mixed media print I’ve been working on for the past couple of weeks is now finished! I did the final touches this evening. “Dragon’s Revenge” is designed by Jamie Reid and commissioned by GS Artists and is a combination of archival digital print (the pale blue background and the word DRAGONS), screenprint (the red Welsh dragon and the blue Saint George), lino cut (the word REVENGE) and a separate digital print (the words MAE HEDDWCH YN GALED).
I collaged the final pieces this evening. It’s great to see an artwork in two languages; Mae Heddwch Yn Galed means Peace Is Hard.
An exhibition of the political works of anarchic artist Jamie Reid, is at GS Artists on Swansea’s High Street until March 1st.
Onto The Next Block ……
23 Feb
As one art project comes to an end, the next one gets started. I’m cutting a new little lino block – something for International Womens’ Day #IWD2020 . I’m using hard brown lino and I’ll fix the block to a stamp base that I bought in the Modular store in Berlin a while back.
And here’s a very short video of me finishing printing my last little lino block on my antique Sampson Mordan & Co press. It’s a gorgeous chunk of cast iron with lush Victorian styling and rather Steampunk.
This little block in the video is part of a print I am editioning, designed by Jamie Reid for GS Artists, who are showing an exhibition of his radical art in Swansea at the moment.
A Sharp Tool And A Strop
19 Feb
When I’m cutting blocks for printmaking, whether it’s lino, vinyl, wood or foamboard it’s vitally important to keep my tools sharp. Once a tool goes blunt it’s a dickens of a job to sharpen it again. Sharpening your tools as you work slows you down a bit but it is more efficient than sharpening tools from scratch. I use Flexcut tools and the Flexcut strop system to keep them sharp. Here’s a short video of my sharpening strop in action.
This little block is part of a print I am editioning, designed by Jamie Reid for GS Artists, who are showing an exhibition of his radical art in Swansea at the moment.
Messy!
18 Feb
I’m onto the messy stages of screenprinting now … squeegeeing ink through the stencil on the silk mesh on to the paper below. I’m almost half way through the edition, hope to have it finished by the end of the week.
Here’s a short video of me using the vacuum screenpress to print the image at Swansea Print Workshop.
I’m developing an edition of mixed media prints for GS Artists from an original by Jamie Reid. There is a great exhibition of his work running until March 1st and here’s some more info about the show and the prints, which will be in a limited edition of 75.
Step By Step
15 Feb
Building a screenprint step by step. It’s a lot of processes and each one has to be exact and tried out as a trial proof at each stage. Here’s the photoscreen of the little knight (above) and here he is printed in cobalt blue (below). I’m happy with the little chap.
I’m developing an edition of mixed media prints for GS Artists from an original by Jamie Reid. There is a great exhibition of his work running until March 1st and here’s some more info about the show and the prints, which will be in a limited edition of 75.
International Womens’ Day 2020
13 Feb

By Esther Ley
International Womens’ Day 2020 is coming up fast and my fellow artist Patti McJones and I have been asked to organise this year’s event at Cinema & Co. It’ll be our fourth year in this great venue. If you’re in Swansea on March 12th around 5.30 – 7.30, you’re very welcome to join us – local artists Esther Ley and Sally Davies are exhibiting with Patti and me. And there’ll be lashings of home made cake, of course.
Sally and Esther are launching their new exhibition, “Every Wrinkled Line” and Patti and I are installing our latest ‘Bog Art’ works.
In the cinema – EVERY WRINKLED LINE – “Women have always been scrutinised and judged, and our worth measured on a scale of supposed ‘beauty’. We are presenting work that need not be judged, the images aren’t beautiful, empowering or even a testament to adversity- they are an honest reflection of a life lived.”
In the Bogs – PATTI MCJONES – “I use my art to point at things. Injustice, hypocrisy, protest or just interesting individuals are the perennial subjects of my work. My real love is documentary speed sketching; ink-capture of protest and music really is the most exciting thing for me. Some of these I then turn into prints, paintings or murals“.
Also in the Bogs – ROSIE SCRIBBLAH – ” ER GÔF was inspired by a winter visit I made to Berlin where the Holocaust Memorial was under a deep white muffled blanket of snow. The massive black monoliths snaking across the site threw extraordinary shadows, forming delicate monochromatic patterns between dark slabs. As that generation of elders that fought World War 2 is dying out, there is a terrifying rise of xenophobia across Europe and the responsibility of remembering the horrors of industrial scale murder falls onto the shoulders of us, their descendants.”
Patti McJones, Rosie Scribblah, Sally Davies
A Soft Squeegee And A Vacuum Press
11 Feb
I cracked on with my trial proofs today at Swansea Print Workshop. I exposed and developed the screens yesterday, and today I mixed up some inks and tried out the screens. I’m very pleased with the quality and resolution. I’m using aluminium screens with 120 mesh from Screenstretch and Azocol photosensitive liquid stencil.
There’s a large vacuum press for silkscreens at Swansea Print Workshop, which makes printing run a lot more smoothly. I’m using Daler Rowney System 3 acrylic paint mixed 40:60 with screenprint medium. I’ve experimented with two different squeegees – a soft and a medium. The soft squeegee presses more ink through but loses some resolution while the medium squeegee pushes less ink through, giving very good detail but loses some colour intensity. Decisions have to be made tomorrow.
I’m developing an edition of mixed media prints for GS Artists from an original design by Jamie Reid. There is a great exhibition of his work running until March 1st and here’s some more info about the show and the prints, which will be in a limited edition of 75.
Exposing The Dragon
10 Feb
After the block printing over the weekend, I moved on to the next phase of the multi-media print designed by the artist Jamie Reid. I worked with Kara Seaman at Swansea Print Workshop to coat two silkscreens with Azocol photosensitive solution and after they dried, exposed them each with a transparency in the UV Unit.
Once they had been exposed for 2 minutes, they were washed to develop the image and then into the drying cupboard. Next stage is to do some colour tests and a couple of trial proofs – tomorrow ….
I’m developing an edition of mixed media prints for GS Artists from an original by Jamie Reid. There is a great exhibition of his work running until March 1st and here’s some more info about the show and the prints, which will be in a limited edition of 75.