It’s been forty years since I had a solo exhibition. At this rate I’ll be 103 when the next one starts. Maybe I’ll have finished some more drawings by then.
Venue: Pembroke Dock Library SA72 6DW. Open 10 a.m – 4 p.m on Monday, Wednesday and Friday; 10 a.m – 1 on Thursday; 10 a.m – 12.30 on Saturday. Exhibition is there until the last day of April 2026.
Four watercolours on display boards Two watercolour skies exhibited within view of a window Linocut white poppy
The white poppy has been a symbol of pacifism for decades. The Peace Pledge Union has promoted nonviolent alternatives to violence since 1934.
It’s a family friendly exhibition, with nothing to upset anyone. However, the pictures could be propaganda for a better environment. Viewers so far have been pleased with the light and shadows in the trees. Showing pictures of an ideal world is easier than nagging everyone to plant more trees to keep flooding at bay.
A watercolour and a linocut on display Linocuts and watercolours
Map of the open studios art trail Small linocuts in a window display
I enjoyed making the background wallpaper for this window display. It’s inspired by a house move when I was about three years old. The new house’s wallpaper was all atomic design; my bedroom had pink and yellow ovals on a grey background. The kitchen was red, yellow and black. That was the first room to be redecorated with pale blues etc, but I preferred the original patterns.
My studio is whichever space is available at the moment, not particularly welcoming for any visitors. Pondering how to put a window exhibition together made me a bit nostalgic for previous studios. The lingering scent of dead pigeons in the roof; tin baths catching the raindrops falling from above. Sharing printing presses with people who left fingerprints on everything(!) There was a lot of admin to help out with in a studio building, the office area was usually warmer so it would be a haven of bustling activity.
There’s also the notion of being a local artist. That’s quite a difficult term, often used as an insult. I’ve lived here for 25 years but I’m not really local. A Radio 4 programme about blood types informed me that I’m part of the same group as some historic invaders. This area is known as ‘The Little England Beyond Wales’, even though the incomers seemed to be Flemish. I’ve never heard any Belgian people chatting around here (so far).
Anyway, these prints gathered together made me realise how many feature hands. Someone asked me if I could draw hands, so I drew a few. Then they asked “but what are linocuts used for?”, so the wallpaper design was to make that clear. What next? I might attempt to put my novel into the right order. It’s about an artist moving to Wales, even though their friends say that’s the same as being dead…
We went for a short walk to the post office and then wandered into the gallery at the library.
Flowers in a phallic totem Flowers in the corner of the car park Exhibition poster Climate Change Reflections
I liked the idea suggested by the empty display cabinet. Viewers have an opportunity to imagine the pieces that could inhabit that space. The reflective images of the lights and window blinds were enough, given the exhibition’s climate change theme. There again, some little models of a future landscape might have been more thought provoking than a bleak emptiness.
The Climate Change figure is made from random detritus. It had an unpleasant smell, which brought back indefinable memories. There were some interesting fish made from toothpaste tubes, also some protest posters. No photos of them. The exhibition is on display for the rest of September 2023.
A bit of urban sketching, except it’s drawn from a photo I took on a sunnier day last week.
I wonder if others see an attractive corner shop, or maybe a cafe. It might be that people like me, who cannot see the ‘unique’ history of the town I live in, can only see derelict buildings here. Optimists will see the potential for improvement.
This building should be a time travel portal, or at least a gateway to another dimension.
berry daines 