Saturday 30 October 2010

St Cynogs Church, Penderyn

Right at the top of the Cynon valley, Penderyn Church feels like stepping back in time.
The churchyard is largely encouraged to return to nature and most of the gravestones are gradually being covered in rank grasses while sapling trees are starting to turn parts into woodland. This picture (in progress) is based on a couple of pencil sketches drawn on a wonderful sunny autumn day. I decided to do the collage from memory so there are probably a lot more gravestones than in reality.

Saturday 16 October 2010

Printers Stint



This is the poster for the exhibition at Rhondda Heritage Park. The quality of the work is very high (I am not including myself!) with a wide range of work from South Wales artists. A significant number are members of Swansea Print workshop, that is Sheila Clark, Jackie Ford, Michael Goode, Lesley Lilywhite and Alison Porter. Valerie Ganz is a well established Swansea born artist and the late William Brown lived in Bridgend. Nigel Bowles and Georgina Brownlow are Cardiff based while Alan Atkins is based in nearby Mountain Ash.

Tuesday 12 October 2010

Valley Houses 2010


This is a considerably cleaned up version of the same print I did in May. A 3 colour lino print, the orange is overprinted onto the blue on the roofs to give another hue. This is the view minus wheelie bins and cars of the mid nineteenth centurt houses that line one side of Wind St, Aberdare. Town Church School is on the other side of the road. 4" x 4".

Chapel II (Gadlys Chapel) 2010


I was instantly attracted to this ex chapel when I saw a photo of it in a publication about the town characterisation survey of Aberdare by Cadw. So I went to see it for myself and yes it does have a red door! Now the building has been sensitively converted for use as flats. This is a 3 colour linocut, including the black. The black block was cut first and then offset onto the other 2 blocks to help with registration. Size of image is 4" x 4".

Terraced Houses 2010


I cleaned up the original so that there are as few distracting marks from the lino as possible. Now rolls and prints quite well. Sky is handpainted with acrylic. Image size 4" x 4" on plain quality cartridge paper.