Another lockdown walk this evening and another charcoal drawing of a grand old yew tree in Cwmdonkin Park. There are loads of yews there, gnarled, ridged, wrinkled. Some of them have branches that have grown back into the main trunk of the tree, other branches wrap round the main trunk like they were ivy. I’m drawing into a lovely Khadi hand-made paper sketchbook. The paper is heavy, textured with deckle edges and it’s an ethical company too.
The Ancient Yew
27 May
Husb and I drove up through mid and north Wales yesterday to go to a John Cale gig in Liverpool. It was awesome! On the way, we took an idyllic shortcut between Beulah and Newbridge on Wye and stopped for a spot of lunch at the venerable old Red Lion Inn at Llanafan Fawr. Opposite the pub is the church of Saint Afan and in the churchyard is an ancient yew, around 2,200 years old.
Of course, I had to have a scribble. It is huge and forms a dark cave around it’s enormous trunk, or network of trunks where there are fallen gravestones, so old that the carved writing has all but disappeared. It was very spooky and Gothic in there. I drew with black, sanguine and white conté crayon into my A4 brown paper sketchbook.
I have put my series of drawings en plein air of ancient Welsh monuments on Artfinder. If you want to see more, please click on the image below or the Artfinder link at the top right of this page. So did you know that Elvis Presley is descended from the Welsh? This drawing below is the legendary grave of Saint Elfys (Elvis) in Pembrokeshire, not for from the Presceli Mountains. Elfys? Presceli? Elvis Presley? Coincidence? hhhmmmm