Printmaking: Lino print

Typical of Welsh villages in my area are rows of terraced houses with stone walls and brickwork around windows and doors. I cut them into linoleum, together with long wrought iron railings, the ubiquitous butterfly bush and garage sheds. Plus some rubbish, typically to be found in the lanes behind houses.

Machen series: Street. 2011.

Graphic Chemical water soluble relief ink 
on Snowdon Cartridge 130gsm paper.

30 x 21 cm

Printmaking: Lino print

This is the view from my kitchen window: cottages across the valley on the other side of the river Rhymney. Its banks are lined with poplars, lime and ash trees.

Machen series: Tudor Gardens. 2011.

Graphic Chemical water soluble relief ink 
on Snowdon Cartridge 130gsm paper.

30 x 21 cm

Printmaking: Lino print

The last image in this series shows another of the typical features in the former mining area around Machen: a tram viaduct. It crosses the Rhymney west of the village. Actually, the viaduct doesn't really cross the river, it connects the bridgehead on the riverbank with an embankment further on. But I wanted to combine river and arches...

All the prints in my Machen series are cut on conventional printmaking linoleum. I'm going to try some new material soon: relief printing vinyl!

Machen series: Viaduct across the Rhymney. 2011.

Graphic Chemical water soluble relief ink 
on Snowdon Cartridge 130gsm paper.

Drawing: charcoal and chalk

This drawing was done at a class tutored by Jantien Powell of Chapel Cottage Studio in Llanddewi Rhydderch near Abergavenny in south east Wales. The motif is a Window in Bath, after a photograph of the Pump Room in Bath, Somerset. The Pump Room is a an elegant restaurant within the building complex of the Roman Baths. The impressive chandelier seen through a dark window had caught my eye.

Charcoal and chalk on Fabriano Tiziano paper, 160gsm, sahara. 2012.

Painting: Watercolour

Birch trees make for a convenient motif in watercolour painting because one doesn't need to draw too many branches. The bark of the tree trunk can be rendered by dragging different colours across, which is fun to do.

Birch Trees

SAA watercolours and ink on sketching paper. 2010.

Painting: Watercolour

A while ago my watercolour teacher, Howard Jones from Caerphilly, showed our class how to paint a quite realistic looking waterfall. Here is my version of it.

Waterfall

SAA watercolours and ink on Bockingford NOT 300gsm. 2010.

36 x 26 cm

Recycled furniture: Chest of drawers

This two-drawer chest is the last piece of furniture I painted in Canada. I swapped working on it for another unpainted chest of drawers which I turned into "Wired" (see post 27/4/2010).

This photo also shows the handpainted floor of one of my Canadian studios in Yarrow, British Columbia.

Acrylic paint, acrylic varnish, wood. 2001.