I’m cracking on with my series of Baby Boomer 30-minute sketches at the moment and this was a very intense drawing, with both of us very quiet and focussed. We were in art college together back in the 1970s and it seems like such a little time ago, but four decades have flown by. Drawn with a mid-grey graphite into an A5 spiral bound sketchbook.
Here’s another of my series of portrait drawings of fabulous Baby Boomers. I’m so enjoying doing these, the conversations I’ve been having are just as important as the physical act of drawing; it’s informing and consolidating my thoughts for the future development of the work. This Baby Boomer is a fellow artist and was having a conversation with yet another artist at The SPace on Swansea’s High Street where I was drawing her. This made it more difficult than usual to get an accurate likeness but I think it led to a more animated drawing. It was fun drawing her scarf and wild curly hair. I used a dark grey graphite stick into my A5 spiral bound sketchbook.
I did another 30 minute portrait drawing this morning with a Baby Boomer with the most fantastic cheekbones. His face is so sculpted that I became absorbed in the abstraction of the planes and angles. Awesome. I drew him at The SPace, Swansea’s newest artspace at 217 High Street, Swansea, open Wednesday to Saturday, 11.30 to 5.00 until mid February.
Yesterday, Husb and I went to the launch of the latest exhibition, Of Site And Song, at the lovely Workers Gallery in Ynyshir. This gorgeous venue recently celebrated its first birthday. It used to be the village library but it was closed down because of austerity cutbacks and artists Gayle Rogers and Chris Williams reopened it as a charming gallery, sculpture workshop, studio and art shop. They have also created a reading area for local people to drop in and browse art books. Chris is a sculptor and he created The Rhondda Tunnel in cardboard as the centrepiece of the new exhibition.
We drove back across the mountain but instead of our usual route via Maerdy and Aberdare, we went through Treorchy and Pontrhydyfen. Whichever way you go the views are spectacular and during the Autumn the hills are burning with 50 shades of brown. Glorious.
Back in April 2014 I travelled to Pakistan with another Swansea Printmaker to do a residency at the Zaira Zaka Print Studio near Rawalpindi. It was an amazing and exhausting experience – jet lag, culture shock, a visit to the ancient monuments at Taxila; working day and night in the studio with my fellow artists to make enough work for a show; the exhibition launch at the fabulous Satrang Gallery in Islamabad opened by the British Ambassador; the hectic weekend in Lahore for my birthday; a full schedule of meetings with artists and gallery owners when we came back from Crazy Lahore, home, reverse culture shock, jet lag!
Hannah Lawson, Zaira Zaka and me in Zaira’s fabulous print studio near Rawalpindi.
When I got home, I was pitched straight back into normal hectic life and it’s taken a while to get my thoughts in order, to get back to the experience, to draw inspiration and develop new work from it.
But something’s finally happening! My fellow printmaker, Hannah Lawson and I are bringing our experiences back home in a four-day pop-up studio at Swansea Print Workshop, from Friday October the 23rd to Monday October the 26th .
Hanna, Zaira and me at the Taxila Buddhist UNESCO ancient monument in north-west Punjab.
We’re kicking off with a family-friendly Welsh – Pakistani tea from 4.30 – 7pm on Friday the 23rd, with Welsh Cakes and Bara Brith, Pink Chai and Builder’s Brew, Pakoras and Samosas and home made chutneys and jams. So if you’re in the area, please pop in.
And the Dragon, the Star and the Crescent Moon? Those are our flags. Pretty cool flags, huh?
I blogged more or less daily while I was in Pakistan and here’s one I did at the beginning of the journey.
After nearly a month doing art in a semi-derelict shop (The Bagpuss Window) I’m back to my normal routine and life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop on Thursdays. This evening’s model goes by the name of Ben D’Busse, a pun on a local traffic experiment that turned out bad!
I drew this with a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 using a free Markers app. I put in a grey ground to start with and then did most of the drawing with my fingertips, using the stylus to put in detailed line work towards the end. Here’s a slide show of the drawing in different stages of development.
Chalk and charcoal ephemeral drawing onto newspaper
I’m reaching the end of my time drawing on the wall at The Bagpuss Window, Swansea’s pop-up artspace. Tomorrow is our last day and the keys go back to Coastal Housing Group on Thursday so that the building can be demolished to make way for new social housing. So it’s going to be put to good use. The final part of my drawing is a drawing of me drawing. There’s still a fair bit of work to do on the face because the likeness isn’t very good and I had to resist the temptation to shave a couple of stone off my body! My right hand also needs a lot of work but I hope to have the whole thing finished by 5pm tomorrow so I can take a final photograph and then – the end…….
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