Had a very enjoyable time yesterday at Bowery Visual Arts delivering a beginner’s guide to drawing portraits. I gave a brief talk about my paintings and the processes behind their creation. Then we looked at Daily Drawings and the mark […]
It’s a compunction that certainly began at art school. Drawing was always held up to be the ultimate in expression, the fundament of it, if not the whole. For me it has gone beyond that, though I must admit to […]
I’ve been thinking about sketchbooks. They are beautiful things, well they can be. I love the paraphernalia of them, the elasticated straps that hold them in place, the endpapers, the red ribbons that save a page. I like them small, […]
RePaper drawings line by line Working with the Creative Writing group at Bowery Visual Arts. Sitters found it fascinating to watch the drawing appear on screen as it developed, and their reaction to it became part of the drawing. Many […]
There’s been a gap. A drawing gap, that is. Well, not completely. I went away and before going had to finish 3 articles, so my drawing practice, sadly had to be put aside. It hurts when I have to do […]
The point of any practice surely is to learn, evaluating as one goes so that there is some kind of betterment. Nevertheless, getting stuck in those formulaic methods of seeing and responding still happens, particularly, as with reportage drawing, the […]
I want a lot from it. And sometimes it is the only thing that makes sense. Drawing, for me at least, is a true thing, an authentic thing. It goes beyond thinking, and that is its pleasure for me. I […]
‘So it will be like Rolf Harris, then?’ said my partner when I told him about the changes I want to make to my project. He was referring, of course, to the Saturday night programmes that Rolf Harris used to […]
They’ve suggested I resubmit my application for ACW funding. I don’t know, and yet I’ve thought of little else all week. There is fear, certainly. Will I be rejected again? The project needs a rethink and I’ve done it. I’ve […]
I had three people asking what I was doing in a space of two days. This is unusual even considering the fact that I’ve been drawing the customers in the same coffee shop for almost five months now. The first […]
Part of the reason that I began a daily drawing practice was in anticipation of a project for which I’d applied for funding. I heard over the weekend that I’d failed to secure it. One of their reasons for refusing […]
The social distancing restrictions enforced on cafes by the Welsh government will be lifted in two weeks. Meanwhile, I, who miss the closeness of watching, drawing and listening to my fellow coffee shop customers, have to bide my time. ‘They […]
The restrictions in Wales limiting the interaction in ‘our’ coffee shop seem set to continue. So I make do. I drew both Saturday and Sunday and focussed on trying to capture a sense of place, and whatever stillness there was. […]
I’ve been writing and my drawing practice has inevitably been left to slide. And I’ve felt it. Stripped bare of all its usual jostle, noise and I must say amiability, the coffee shop where I practice has not been as […]
Daily Drawings has now turned ten. See all the drawings – over 3650 of them – over on my Flickr. Happy New Year!
It was all change when we returned to our coffee shop after Christmas. Stripped of tables and with a one way system marked out on the floor, I panicked. How or whom am I going to draw? Don’t indulge it, […]
Liverpool based artist Emily Speed‘s work explores the relationship between people and buildings and in particular the body and its relationship to architecture. She discusses what she has achieved over the last 12 months, including her first major solo exhibition […]
The coffee shop was initially quiet on the two mornings that we managed to visit it. We thought it might be the case after the Welsh government have imposed new restrictions due to come into force after Boxing Day. For […]
In an attempt to side-step a mind that is bent on destabilising my confidence, I often speed draw. Tea helps, as does the arrival of a motley of coffee shop frequenters in marvellous winter garb (and/or with fantastic haircuts to […]
