Autumn Show

Upcoming exhibition: Llanidloes Artists’ Autumn Show, Minerva Arts Centre, Llanidloes, Mid Wales. Opening 2-3pm Saturday 26th October. Runs until 2nd November. Exhibiting artists: @jeremyandrews395, Minna Barnes, @junkoburton, Kelli Di Capri, Vivi-Mari Carpelan (@tightropedancer66), Leanne Cordingley-Wright (@studiomayfly), @sandycraigartist, @gardiner_irene, @artbyosian, @erin.l.hughes, … Continue reading →

Art Days at The Pales. Upcoming Workshops

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I will be running a series of art workshops at The Pales, Llandegley, near Llandrindod Wells, Powys, throughout June. Weds 5th June 2019 – Drawing Weds 12th June 2019 – Printmaking (Linocut) Weds 19th June 2019 – Mixed Media Acrylic … Continue reading →

Artist in Residence at Mid Wales Arts Centre

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My residency at Mid Wales Arts Centre, run by Cathy Knapp, in beautiful North Powys. I started the day with a slice of Cathy’s amazing cake. This put me in the mood for taking in my surroundings and breathing in … Continue reading →

The Persistence of Identity

I am currently exploring ideas based around a study of Endurantism, or Endurance Theory; the identity of something persisting across time. Google ‘Ship of Theseus’ for a conundrum. The counter-theory is Perdurantism – identity as a series of temporal parts.

Health constraints can limit my energy and occasionally I have to observe rather than experience the landscape outdoors. I have been studying the transient effects of light on the form of the landscape that I see from my window, and I am developing work using somatic mark making and repetition drawings as an emotional interaction with the landscape as it experiences subtle change. I will translate these into larger pieces.

Plein Air Sketching in Mid Wales

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I took a small sketchbook on my walk today and made a few quick drawings of the enduring landscape. It has undergone subtle changes over the years that I have been walking here, some natural and some forced; planted forest … Continue reading →

Hybrid Drawings from a Hospital Waiting Room

Hybrid Drawings from a Hospital Waiting Room. A series of personal sketches that I worked on in hospital waiting rooms one very long day this week, and some I worked on a few days later as an extension to those done on site.

Pic7

I had a recent health scare that turned out alright in the end. I’ve spent a year improving from a flare of Rheumatoid Arthritis and have been feeling so much more energised recently, so this one came at me sideways, unexpectedly. As I waited at the hospital breast clinic for tests to be done and results to be discussed I worked in my sketchbook, mostly to distract myself from thinking about the possible outcomes of the day. I had tried reading books recommended by a friend to help me through the 2 weeks leading up to the appointment but couldn’t absorb any of the information in the pages and kept reading the same paragraphs over and over thinking that each time I would latch on to the text and continue, but I could not. So, during the long waits at the hospital, in between being physically processed, my sketchbook was a welcome outlet for my thoughts and subconscious.

I was raised on the outskirts of a small rural village in Mid Wales called Llandinam, amongst a range of intimate rolling hills that has the appearance of a female torso, two hills of which resembling a mismatched pair of breasts, one mature and full and the other more youthful. The view of this formation is breathtakingly beautiful on a sunny day, and can be seen best when approaching the village on the A470 from the North.
I look back on my childhood days with a good deal of nostalgia as I loved living there and roaming those hills. So often I will find myself drawing them or including similar shapes, forms and lines in my work. They have a distinct rhythm.

So, sitting in the waiting room, I began to draw; the result being a hybrid of that familiar landscape and my thoughts about my own body that was marked up with a biro. The series goes from nervous scribbling early on (pics1-3) to more stressful and sweeping mark making (pics4+5) as I went from test to test until, finally, exhausted relief at the results, at which point I ditched the sketchbook and hit the caffeine hard. A few days later I created a calmer drawing (pic6) then several more (pics7-9) that were more detached from the immediate adrenaline-fuelled moments but are, in my opinion, a more creative processing of ideas.

 

Pic1

Pic2

Pic3

 

 

Pic4

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Pic6

Pic7

Pic8

Pic9

I used a mechanical pencil, graphite stick and Caran D’Ache Neocolor II water soluble crayons.

The hills referred to in this text can be seen in the first image here:

http://trip-suggest.com/united-kingdom/wales/llandinam/

Life Drawing at Oriel Davies Gallery

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Long overdue life drawing session at Oriel Davies Gallery. It has surely been over a year since I last attended. I created three drawings and was fortunate to have some interesting views of the poses. There are usually around eleven of … Continue reading →

Drawing at Ceredigion Museum

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I spent some time recently at Ceredigion Museum in Aberystwyth, drawing objects particularly amongst the fabulously curated dairy collection. I was trying to capture the physical use of the historic objects and a sense of industry and repetition in my … Continue reading →

Artisans’ Emporium May 2016

 

I’ve just installed my artwork at the Artisans’ Emporium exhibition at Minerva Arts Centre, Llanidloes, Mid Wales.

I am showing a range of original paintings, drawings, linocuts, giclée prints, collages and cards. All work is for sale. Come visit if you’re in the area – it’s on throughout May, 7 days a week!

 

Shoes

New drawing. Winsor and Newton Indian ink, with Parker ink wash on the background.

I have a bit of a fascination with objects that show some signs of wear. The interesting character of each shoe here, left and right, creates a narrative. I have already created an acrylic painting of the same shoes……I feel a series coming on….in various media.