Crickhowell Castle

Crickhowell Castle Linocut

This image has been brewing in my mind for some time as the castle is very visible when you drive down the hill into the town. I did a collage of it for the exhibition at Neville Hall and this is a sketch based on that collage.

This is a 2 colour reduction linocut and measures about 3"x 5", in an edition of 5.

New collage Whitecastle

Whitecastle

Again created as a result of studying the original sketch, but trying to avoid the overall greyness of the building.

New collages

Skenfrith Castle

I visited Skenfrith for the first time this week, and came upon the castle early in the evening with its long contrasting shadows. I sketched in situ with pen and paper and then worked up this image the next day. The process is quite a long one, first preparing a background on canvas in acrylic and then identifying the shapes that caught my eye. Then coloured swatches are selected and re arranged continually to achieve some kind of harmony and balance
I am doing this and other collage paintings to show next week in Neville Hall hospital out patients department. .

The Colour of Rocks

John Piper said that rocks are not simply grey in fact they are not grey at all. However at first impression as seen in this photograph of rocks near The Darren in Dare Valley Country Park, they do look very grey. All the rocks here are not really the colour of rocks at all as they are totally covered in lichens. We are looking at the colour of lichens.

Where the rock has been newly recently exposed then we can see  something of its true colour, in this case reddish brown and dark blue. There are hardly any rocks up here that actually look like this. These fresh rocks are also sharp edged and angular whereas the ones in the top photo have been weathered into rounded corners and deep cracks almost like the hide of  an animal such as an elephant.

These are what are generically known as map lichens because they form patches of colour like the countries represented on an atlas of the world. I have shown these here because they are an unusual colour in this area and they stand out from some considerable distance.

The more typical lichen is this grey one, with other patches of pale (almost white) and yellow map lichens. In the top left is a patch of a thicker foliose lichen with a range of different greys. Other lichens in this area can be a deep brown in hue.

So when it comes to painting a rock where do you start? In effect it can be almost any colour if you look closely enough because the patches of different coloured lichen can occur  anywhere in any combination. Here I have kept the dark brown lichens where they occurred naturally and the intense sienna in the background represents the dead bits of rush. And the blue, well that's there if you look hard enough!

Linocut Design, Llanelli.

Linocut preparatory drawing in pen and ink

This is a drawing in preparation to make a single colour linocut for the church at Llanelli, near Gilwern. Using the sketch made on site in the previous post, the image has been squared up and transferred to 150mm x 100mm format. I was particularly interested in the yew trees which effectively encircle the church on its south side. 

Church Drawings and sketches

Llanelli near Gilwern ink and wash sketch

Llanelli near Gilwern, ink sketch

Llanblethian ink sketch

Pendoylan Church. Ink and wash.





New sketches

Welsh St. Donat's

I am starting the process of travelling around looking at churches and other old buildings and am trying to develop some sort of formula so that I'm not constantly re inventing the wheel and avoiding transporting around lots of stuff. This is where I am at the moment, i.e.- small (image 4"x3") on watercolour paper, just a pencil, fine black drawing pen and one other colour in this case burnt sienna. I need to produce something that can be drawn on the spot fairly quickly so i don't get too cold and that contains enough information to make prints from, but also hopefully stands alone.

John Knapp Fisher

I recently borrowed a couple of small books with John Knapp-Fisher in the title. The first called John Knapp-Fisher's Pembrokeshire by himself was published in 1995 by the Senecio Press. There is an interesting foreward by Robin Bradbury who says
'To look at, and experience a John Knapp-Fisher painting is to enter a world we cannot describe linguistically' (pi)
Knapp-Fisher then goes on to describe in his own words how he evolved as an artist since moving to Pembrokeshire in the late 1960's. Although his subject matter and method of working has stayed the same (drawing from life and then developing the work in the studio), the format and materials have changed. In the 1970's it was watercolour and letter box shape, in the 80's more oil and bigger.

It is interesting to see just how small many of the works in this book are. Many are only 5" or 6" in one dimension and some only 3" square. He liked putting together many small images together to form what he called composites,
'The object of these composites is to suggest an almost op Art appearance when viewed from a distance and a mini exhibition when viewed closely.' (p26)
Much of his work he says is done out of the deep  feeling he has for the subject, especially the landscape immediately around him (and the influences of farming, fishing and other industries) rather that just depiction or making pretty pictures. He argues that good art should exist as well in Pembokeshire as well as any where else and that his work should stand alone regardless of the subject matter.
'Any painting that has an awareness of paint as a thing in itself; strong or vibrant composition; good structure of form or drawing; good tonal values and above all is exiting to look at, is to  a greater or lesser extent a good painting.' (p23)
The majority of the rest of the book shows a representation of his drawing and painting up to that date.

The second book is called 'Pembrokeshire Churches-Described by Michael Fitzgerald. Paintings by John Knapp-Fisher'1985(Rosedale publications). And it is exactly what it says on the tin. All the sketches were done on the spot and include internal and external views of a selection of the churches, some in black and white and some in colour.

There is not a lot to say other than that some of the images are a lot better than others and some of the interior views especially leave a lot to be desired.

John Piper, The Mountains of Wales



Jagged Rocks under Tryfan



If you like the work of John Piper then you will love this exhibition at The National Museum of Wales Gallery till 13th May 2012. It features mainly paintings of Snowdonia made during and just after the second world war, as well as some other work including a couple of collages of landscapes and chapels and a sketch of Hafod.

Accompanying the exhibition is a full colour catalogue with an introduction by David Fraser Jenkins. He says

'It was in Snowdonia in the years after the war that John Piper made what many people have thought were the best of all his paintings'(p11). Its difficult not to agree with this statement but he then goes on to say 'Not one of the drawings looks like it had been made on a sunny day, and the sky is always a mottled grey...'(p12). This seems a strange comment from such a scholar as Fraser Jenkins, as Piper had a reputation for dark melancholic wartime paintings that disregarded the weather, for example his depictions of Windsor castle. 

Interestingly the first item in the catalogue is not a mountain but an oil painting of Llanthony Priory. Like the other oil paintings presented here the canvas is heavily gessoed and then marks scratched out to create patterns that are subsequently highlighted with washes of paint. The dark sky and foreground contrast strongly with the pale yellow towers of the church, so much so that the lighter colours almost shine out. This effect is repeated with striking effect in The Rise of the Dovey and Rocky Valley, North Wales. The Rise of the Dovey looks almost like a furnace when viewed from the other side of the room and must owe no small influence to the techniques of JMW Turner. 

Only 3 of the works in this exhibition are oil paintings, the majority being watercolours and pen and ink drawings with pastel highlights or resists, on paper.  Piper often returned to each drawing and re worked them either using the same media or turning them into oil paintings. The Head of the Nant Ffrancon Pass, Tryfan, Snowdonia is the same view as the Rocky Valley, North Wales.
'By comparing the two works it is clear that the composition and viewpoint are identical. Piper tended to execute his sketches and watercolours on-the-spot outdoors, so it is reasonable to assume that this work, along with other sketches, provided the reference for the oil painting the following year.' (p60)
If these large drawings are indeed done on the spot they are remarkable because they show Piper's faculties of concentration and focus. I have tried (and failed) painting in the mountains and for me the most difficult part was knowing where to start and how to get the vast and awesome mass of rock with its ever changing patterns of light and shade onto even a large piece of paper. 

As well as the large drawings there are some lovely small sketches such as LLyn Dinas, Gwynedd and Stone Wall in Snowdonia. Again black ink dominates and Piper makes good use of wax resists. In these images we can really feel his energy, Piper doesn't waste time, once he has eyed a suitable composition he draws frantically with the wax to infer the lighter masses and outlines. Then he follows this with ever darker washes of black ink followed by scribbles and marks made with ink pen or thicker brush. He is not afraid of reworking and overlaying so that one has the sense he is more involved in looking than accurate drawing. Sometimes he finishes off with splashes of colour, some of which may be there, but perhaps on a much smaller scale, such as patches of brightly coloured lichen.

There are two monotype prints in the exhibition called Trawsallt, Cardiganshire and Pistyll Raeadr. They took me by surprise as was not aware Piper had done monotypes. Although not to my taste they do show his willingness to experiment and the strong influence that nineteenth century guidebook illustrations had made on Piper.

According to Fraser Jenkins after 1951 Piper stopped painting mountains and his colours started to intensify at this time, 'The change in his painting was in its colouring, which became much warmer and brighter.'(p20). However the screenprint of Cwm Graianog did appear in the Stones and Bones portfolio of 1978, also shown in this exhibition.

[All page quotations from the catalogue, John Piper, The Mountains of Wales, Paintings and drawings from a private collection. National Museum Cardiff. 11 February-13 May 2012. David Fraser Jenkins and Melissa Munro.]

Collage sketch

Llantrisant Church collage

A small collage 6" x 4" of the tower and churchyard at Llantrisant.

Judith Stroud at Cynon Valley Museum

Angie Lewin Print

Have just seen the Judith Stroud linocuts at Cynon Valley Museum and was very impressed. The colours of the images are much brighter than I remember from seeing them at the Junction in Swansea. The designs and use of colour is excellent and the marks are very skillfully made. For me the strongest designs are those using a very dark key block which add to their graphic qualities. Judith has chosen to leave marks made by the carving process so the viewer is in no doubt these are lino cuts. I thought the prices of £75 for an unframed print were very reasonable for work of this quality .
The main motif of this series of prints is looking through the vegetation towards distant landmarks and buildings. People feature rarely though there are a few birds and lots of umbellifers. This low level view is an approach that is a hallmark of the prints of Angie Lewin who often combines lino with woodcuts, see above. Angie Lewin keeps her images very clean so it can be difficult to see how they are made and as I have never seen one in the flesh I can't comment on their intensity of colour though I do like her designs.

Judith Stroud

Testing Relief Inks

I am in the process of finding more about the inks I use for lino prints. I have started by testing black inks
Speedball, water washable
Daler Rowney water washable
IKUA Ink and tack thickener
Caligo Safe Wash relief ink
Lawrence oil based ink
As well as
Windsor and Newton Water colour
Windsor and Newton Drawing Ink(Indian)

Used pinch press and 160g paper throughout for consistency with 2" durathene roller. Two designs used, one of cherry tree leaves for detail and one just blank to give an idea of density(coverage). Each ink was printed up to 3 times, 1st run, 2nd run(block not cleaned), 3rd run(block cleaned)

Best Results for detailed image(cherry) numbers refer to test samples
1 Speedball(1st run)
12 Daler Rowner (3rd run)
15 W&N watercolour (3rd run)
22 IKUA (2nd run)
Worst results
18 W&N watercolour, no image
19 W&N drawing ink, v pale image
11 Daler Rowney (2nd run)
20 Caligo (2nd run) too thick

Best results for plain blocks
30 Caligo (2nd run)
Speedball (3rd run)
Worst results
17 W&N watercolour, destroyed paper
4 Speedball (1st run)
23 IKUA (1st run)

Overall results
Speedball, good crisp image for finer work, difficult to get dense cover over large areas
Daler Rowney Thick ink, better when block cleaned between prints. Not dense coverage on larger areas
Watercolour Surprisingly good detail however dries almost instantly so no good for larger areas
Drawing Ink Useless
IKUA Good for detailed work with correct amount of thickener, very slow drying. Poor coverage
Caligo Dense and good coverage but too thick for finer work, needs to be thinned
Lawrence Similar to Caligo