Even Closer to Home - Swansea

Swansea is the nearest city to my home. It's a city with an industrial heritage which goes right back to the industrial revolution, and a maritime heritage which goes back further, although it only received the Royal Charter granting it city status during my own life time, in 1969, to commemorate Prince Charles' investiture as the Prince of Wales.
Here's a selection of my Swansea sketches: -

The full figure just above is Captain Cat, a character from Dylan Thomas' play for voices, "Under Milk Wood". That play is set in the fictional Llarregub, which is supposedly based on the sleepy seaside village of Laugharne, further west along the coast of the Bristol Channel. However Dylan himself was born in Swansea, and as one of the most important poets of the 20th Century Swansea is justly proud of him, and actually takes its role as a cultural centre for the area very seriously. This statue, and the statue of the seated Dylan Thomas himself also picture above, are in Swansea Marina, and literally yards away from the Dylan Thomas Theatre and centre for the arts. 

The Marina itself was constructed from the Swansea South Dock, which was closed at the end of the 1960s. It took over a decade for plans to be approved and for construction to be carried out, but the Marina now is possibly the most vibrant and interesting area close to the centre of the city. If you look at the sketch on the immediate left, you can see the Pump House restaurant which was built inside the shell of the Victorian former pumping house of the docks.  Fairly close by are two of the country's collection of Historic Ships which are moored outside the Waterfront Museum, which is the more modern and interactive of the two museums close by, and which pays special attention to the city's Maritime and Industrial History.

As I've already mentioned, the Marina is one of the more vibrant areas of Swansea. This next sketch shows the luxury flats which have been built on the old docks, and also gives a hint of the wide variety of boats moored there. Funnily enough, despite me saying it's a vibrant area, which it is, I do find it a calming and peaceful experience to take a sketchbook to the Marina in the middle of the day, and just sketch anything that takes my fancy.

One historical fact that most people who don't live in or near Swansea don't tend to know, is that Swansea was the home of the world's first ever passenger railway. It opened in 1807, but it was horse drawn rather than steam powered for several decades. In the 20th century it was really a tramway, although the decision was made to close it in 1960, scrap the trams, and rip up the tracks. Sadly only one front end of one tram remains, and this is on display in the tramshed adjacent to the Waterfront Museum, which you can see in the sketch alongside. 

The Waterfront Museum houses a replica of Richard Trevithick's first ever steam locomotive. This actually first ran in relatively nearby Merthyr Tydfil, which problems with the cast iron rails cast doubt on its potential. Trevithick was one of those inventors who sadly never received much wealth from his invention, and had to watch credit go to later work by the Stephensons, amongst others. 

Close to Home - Cardiff

Just a couple from another capital city - Cardiff - capital of Wales. We have the Cardiff Central Railway Station: -

and also a statue in the National Museum of Wales called "The Drummer Boy"

8) Wales - May 2017

After returning from Prague, I still had a couple of weeks on my sick note, as it were. I was aware of the therapeutic effect that making the sketches in Prague had brought me, and so I tried to get out and around in Wales to make some more sketches.

Dylan Thomas' boathouse - Laugharne

 It's a source of shame to me to admit this, but before this, despite living in Wales for 30 years, and despite me being an English Literature graduate and English teacher, I had never previously visited Dylan Thomas' boathouse. Laugharne is an achingly beautiful place on a bright Spring day like this.

Back alley - Laugharne

 Laugharne has this really charming higgledy-piggledyness, being built on little hills which reach down to the sea, and I fell in love with this view, and stood there for about an hour, trying to get it all down before fatigue set in.

St. Fagans Open Air Museum - former Aberystwyth tollhouse

 The Museum of Welsh Life in St Fagans just outside Cardiff is a place I've visited with my kids on several occasions. At a loss for what to sketch one cold day towards the end of April, I went and made this and the following two sketches.

St. Fagans Open Air Museum - Gwalia Stores

St Fagans Open Air Museum - Oakdale Institute

Brecon, Mid Wales

 Brecon is another Welsh town which has a charming randomness about its streets. In centuries past Brecon was an important market town, and the county town of Brecknockshire, and its streets still follow the medieval street plan.

Brecon - Mid Wales

 Although I say it myself, I think that you can see how I'd started to develop a personal sketching style since returning from Prague - a more graphic style, with heavy use of shade and shadow to give texture.

Brecon - Mid Wales

I do like street scenes, and this sketch from Brecon is one of my favourites. Something as fiddly as this does take time though, and if there's no convenient place to sit you can get some very funny looks from people who pass on the narrow streets.

Cardiff

 Finally, three street scenes from Cardiff. All of them are composite sketches - using the technique I used in Prague of adding a couple of figures at a time before sketching in the buildings to build up the whole picture

Cardiff - nr. Cardiff Castle

 The two figures in the foreground here are my daughter Jess and future son in law Dan

Cardiff - Hayes

I like the contrast between the dark, almost silhouetted figures, and the light buildings.

3) Wales - Cardiff - Pierhead Building - September 2016

Cardiff - Pierhead Building

I did think for a bit about whether I could reasonably include British cities. But what the hell - I made this in pretty much exactly the same way that I made the Belgium sketches - with the exception that I'd discovered sketching pens by this time. And we are part of Europe - Brexit notwithstanding. For what it's worth I am a confirmed remainer - as they say, don't get me started.

The Pierhead Building is a beautifully iconic redbrick masterpiece, originally built right at the end of the 19th century as headquarters for the Bute Dock Company. It now belongs to the National Assembly of Wales.

While sketching this I was approached by just the one couple, who turned out to be Canadian. I think they were a little disappointed that I couldn't tell them a huge amount about the building, although they were at least quite complimentary about the sketch.