Own work: The Great Stone

 

     Finally got my latest pen and ink drawing complete.  We are having a difficult time of it, with illness in the family.  'The Great Stone' is 9.2x22.cms, ink with pencil under drawing, on 250g/m Bristol.

Own work: sketches towards 'The Great Stone'

 

      I thought I'd share with you the sketches I have made so far as I work towards a new pen and ink drawing 'The Great Stone'.  Hopefully it'll give you a good idea of the process of creating an artwork.

Own work: 'Archway, Bath'

     Welcome to the Salon des Refuses. I painted this specifically for an exhibition in London. Not something I usually do as living in south west Wales it is such a schlep. Anyway I was relieved of the hassle of getting it up to town and back by being rejected. Alas.

     The judging criteria meant that this isn't in my usual mixed media. I have had to work in water soluble media only. This has meant a change in my technique, and a little learning in the process. The composition is also slightly different in that I have included the urban context of the arch, which I usually play down or omit altogether.

     Perhaps this is not sort of architecture that one immediately thinks of in connection with Bath - it being Georgian and all that. This structure is however late Victorian, the work of the Scottish born architect J M Brydon, and illustrates how by the turn of twentieth century British architecture was swinging back to full blown Classicism. It forms part of his complex of civic buildings - Guildhall, Market and Art Gallery - in the centre of the city. The arch is merely the rear entrance to the site. I love its sculptural, mannerist qualities.

Own work: Latest pen and ink drawing

     Here is my latest pen and ink drawing approx 17x8cms. Shape is based on a Neolithic axe-head. Seems to be really unpopular on instagram!

Own work: 'Llech Gronw'

     My latest pen and ink drawing, based on the slaying of Gronw Pibyr in 'Math fab Mathonwy' the fourth of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, the 'Pedair Cainc y Mabinogi'. At the end of the tale the usurping Gronw is confronted by the hero Lleu Llaw Gyffes hot for revenge. Although accepting Lleu's challenge Gronw, in an act both duplicitous and cowardly, hides behind a standing stone, but undeterred Lleu throws his spear at stone and coward piercing both.

Own work: 'Stones in a Mythic Landscape'

     My latest pen and ink drawing 'Stones in a Mythic Landscape' approx 19 x 17cms on 220 gsm cartridge paper.

Own work: Stones and Moon

     Another pen and ink drawing for you: Stones and Moon, approx 12 x 18 cms on 300 gsm watercolour paper.  'Really eerie, that,' says a friend.

Own work: Standing Stones

      My first pen and ink drawing in a long time, 'Standing Stones' approx 14.5 x 16.5 cms.

Kersey Rood Screen

    My recent post on Kersey reminded me of a sketching trip there in the mid-nineties when I was working in Suffolk.  I've dug out the watercolour sketch in question from my 'archive'.  It shows part of the one the four (I think) remaining panels of the Rood Screen dado.  This panel represents the Holy and Victorious Martyr Edmund, King of East Anglia. 

    Before I launched this post I thought I'd better check the details in Munro Cautley.  H Munro Cautley (1876 - 1959) was an architect and historian.  His magnum opus is 'Suffolk Churches and Their Treasures', Norman Allard & Co, Ipswich, 1937 (2nd & 3rd editions: 1938 & 1954).  He was surveyor to the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich.  Off the top of my head I could only think of two buildings by him:  Lloyd's Bank in Wisbeach (Cambs) and St Augustine of Hippo, Ipswich.  They both seem somehow at odds with a love of East Anglian Perp; the bank is rather good Neo-Georgian, the church monumental and perhaps a little heavy, but researching of  this post I've found plenty of other buildings by him, some I have known for years such as Lloyd's Bank in Cambridge.  I think you could say that his work is variable in quality.  There is a flickr page dedicated to him, and not surprisingly there's quite a lot about him on the Suffolk Churches website: www.suffolkchurches.co.uk
    Enough of that discursion.  Here is my watercolour drawing of Kersey Rood Screen:

And here are a couple of other drawings from that same sketch book I thought you might like: