New Gouache Works

New gouache works are currently being created. These paper and water based paints are all approximately 25 x 50 cm (image size). They are works in their own right rather than a study for or after a particular painting. Materials include Lucas and Windsor and Newton Gouache on Royal Watercolour Society 250g paper.

Main Outside Studio Building Works

Work is on going on the front of the studio as 20 years of weather have taken the toll. New windows, fascia board and blasting what was left of the painted surface is taking place. Underneath beautiful stone, light grey from Trawsfynydd and pointing in good condition. Today top coat of Atlantic Surf 1 put onto the two main doors. The colour is actually a hybrid mixed by Robinsons Bangor, a never to repeated blue.

New artworks in perspex and vinyl

Two large new perspex based works are in progress for bangor Creadigol installation later this year. To compliment earlier works shown in Kansas City Missouri, the new works are ever more demanding compositions capitalising on the process driven, linear aspect.

Review of Splott Bridge Artwork

The artwork on Splott Bridge is holding up remarkably well. Wales Online Review not traceable.

Digital Sketchbook 1: Shape and Surface

Splott Railway Bridge South West Side Completed

The fence came down 19 April at 1pm, so the bridge is now complete. The South West side, last to be painted, looks excellent. The dominant yellow appears strong in area and weight. The gold ochre has worked really well in threading the design together. Overall, the design seems to move along the pavement, the side of the road with style and ease. The two sides of the bridge are far away from each other to be distinct yet there is an awareness of the other side; the concept was that there would be a dialogue between the two sides of the bridge. This has been successful and the change in scale from artwork to design has led to the actual painted bridge far exceeding the idea. It is an absolutely superb outcome. Click on the title above for full photograph portfolio and below for the north east side.

Splott Railway Bridge North East Side Completed

On 16th march the north east side of the bridge was completed and the wire fence removed. Click on the title above to view further photographs of the 33 metre artwork.

Splott Bridge Artwork Painting In Progress

On 1st and 5 March I drew the design onto the bridge using chalk and black pen; large scale drawing and the painting of the North east Side had started on Friday. Painters Andrew and Paul painting the Blue sections to the North East side

Splott Railway Bridge Cardiff Artwork Final Designs

"A bare wall is a 'dead, anonymous surface'. It will come alive only with the help of objects and colour. They can give life to the wall or destroy it. A stained, coloured wall becomes a living object" Fernand Leger, On Monumentality and Colour.


Dear Mr. Smith,

I am a student of the Journalism school at the Cardiff University. As a part of an assignment, I am doing a story on the repainting of the Splott bridge. I'd request you to answer a few questions for the story:

1. What's the idea behind the design?

2. Which of the two are your favourite?

3. How do you think the repainting of the bridge will affect the residents of Adamsdown and Splott?

I's be grateful if you could answer these questions as they are indispensable for the story.

Thanking You,

Yours Sincerely,
Shruti Tripathi

Dear Shruti,

Thank you for your email. Here are responses to your questions:

1. The idea behind the bridge designs is to create a dynamic colour composition using shapes and forms gathered from the buildings, streets and places around the neighbourhood of Splott. The designs and colour schemes are named after streets in the vicinity of the bridge. The shapes came from features of buildings and small details that are abstracted and altered in scale. For example, a small pipe can become a large tube form.

On the colour choice, some came from pure observation. For example the golden ochre (in both designs) came from the victorian decorative tiles in many of the doorways around splott and the naples yellow from the horizontal brick work of the end of terraces (the bands in habershon also came from this). The other brickwork including a photo from the willows school of a pub end wall and rusty pipes at the steelworks informed the reds, and there is a fair amount of painted blue around the steelworks... But above all, of course, final colour was chosen for interaction, contrast and design needs.

2. I would have to go with Constellation as a personal favourite as it is the most dramatic of the two and the bright yellow perhaps will lift the south west side of the bridge that does not get so much sun.

3. I hope it will brighten that end of Splott Road for everyone that walks, drives and passes by into and out of Splott and Adamsdown.

Splott Railway Bridge Artwork Design Commission Cardiff

The commission is to produce two artwork designs for Splott Railway Bridge in Cardiff. At over 33m in length and over 2m in height this large scale exterior artwork presents tremendous opportunity. Working with local schools and the community two designs for each side will be produced to be chosen at a public consultation event. The Willows High School have kick started the project by carrying out a photographic project looking for shape and form in the townscape around Splott. Click on the title above to view the selected photographs from over 540 submitted. See here for my own research photographs. 

Visit to Australia for Le Cheile and Off Straits. Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney

Recent visit to Australia was very productive visiting major art galleries in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney whilst taking part in exhibitions Off Straits and Le Cheile. Breakfast meeting with artists including left to right Trevor Wren, Dani McLean, myself, Gavin Malone, Lucy Thurley, Veronica Calarco, Suzanne Laslett and Craig Marsden. Full report of the Le Cheile can be found on the a-n site Artists Talking Project Unedited. Click on the title above for visit photo set. Celtica festival was very successful with visual art exhibitons taking place throughout Port Adelaide at the same time as Le Cheile at New Land Gallery, featuring large drawing/print work and screeprints. Off Straits featured several of the acrylics on paper made for the exhibition.

Off Straits: Wales andSouth Australia

The twelve paintings for Off Straits are finally to a point of resolution today 10 days before departure for Australia. I have been working on these new acrylics for two months and may paint on them more in Adelaide. Really enjoyed acrylics and this is the first time I have seriously used them. Collaborative work with Veronica Callarco is also planned. See below for full project details..

Nant Gwrtheyrn Wales Ireland Residency

The spectacular location of Nant Gwrtheyrn and excellent weather made for a good afternoons painting on the works for Off Straits. Joining Pamela de Bri, Eileen Keane, Margaret Becker, Alison Craig, Linda Davies, Ian Williams, Eirian Llwyd, Ross, and Don Braisby there was time for collaborative drawing and plenty of discussion. It is just what the painting needed, an injection of tertiary colour in response to the unfolding horizon...
Click on the title above to see photos of the residency.

Parrys Mountain Ynys Môn Bangor Team Exploration

Spectacular day exploring Parrys Mountain Ynys Môn overground during the day and then underground at night. Some of the tutors at Bangor University met for a really enjoyable lunch and tour of Mike Knowles studio before we were taken to the location of Parrys mountain copper mines. Noelle Griffiths, Wanda Zyborska, Noel McCready, Marged Pendrell, Joanna Evans and myself descended in to the dark depths of the labyrinth of mining tunnels emerging finally at 10pm..spectacular underground mineral formations, ochres and oxides making a subterranean landscape of elemental dimension.

Click on the title above to see several more pictures

Off Straits: Wales – South Australia

During Novemeber and December I will be visiting Adelaide, South Australia to research and develop a future collaborative project for presentation in Wales and South Australia. During the visit I will be participating in three art events:

Off Straits – An exhibition by Veronica Calarco (printmaker/painter, Australia), Suzanne Laslett (photographer), Andrew Smith (painter, Wales) and Gareth Wyn Jones (photography, Wales). (Off Straits – Off implying away, somewhere else, distant and Strait being a connecting waterway between two areas or pools of water). This exhibition will open at 6pm Thursday 10 December 2009 at the Parks AXIS Gallery, Port Adelaide. http://www.portenf.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=1307. I am now making works on paper for this exhibition, see the next post!

Celtica Festival: Celtic Roots II - The Celtica Festival 2009 will be during 4,5 and 6 December 2009 http://www.celticafestival.com.au/. As part of the Festival Celtic Roots II
http://www.celticafestival.com.au/location.html will be presented at the Newland Gallery and Gaff Gallery in Port Adelaide with selected work from open submission, 28 November -10 December 2009 and opens on Sunday 29 November 2009. As well as exhibiting artwork, I will be leading a workshop during the festival with 5 other artists (Danica Headland: Printing without a press workshop; Andrew Smith: concept/drawing/construction workshop; Sandy Elvard: Basket Weaving; Veronica Calarco: Stretching a canvas; Veronica Calarco: Polychromatic Printing; Lucy Thorley: Introduction to Painting; Sunshine March: Clay work)

Le Chéille, a Welsh-Irish Collaborative Project - The touring Welsh/Irish collaborative printmaking exhibition, exploring themes of land, language and place with seventeen artists from Wales, Ireland and Australia in this version of the original Co. Kildare exhibition. The project is ongoing and currently organising a residency in Nant Gwtheyrn on 19th-21st October 2009 with new members from Ireland and Wales and is now entering the phase of touring South Australia. The opening of Le Chéille in Adelaide will be at The New Land Gallery, Port Adelaide on the 27 November 2009 during its substantial tour of South Australia. As well as having several pieces of work it his exhibition including one substantial work, the exhibition in Adelaide will be a very good opportunity to discuss the idea of exchange as a process and further projects with artists, curators and exhibition organisers. http://www.countryarts.org.au/catalogs/whats-on/sa/le-chéile-223665.php

BSC Innovation Barry Public Art Commission Work in Progress 7

Click on the title for work in progress 7, final stages; description on the right. See here for the final artworks. 

BSC Innovation Barry Public Art Commission Work in Progress 6

Both paintings develop in this session. Palette well established and working fluidly as colour space areas are applied. See the description on the right of the photos by clicking the title link above. The left painting 'hook' section top left corner is established but the internal section of dark brown needs to be consolidated and reworked. This is changed to incorporate a wall section and further box element. The square boxes refer directly to the port containers, diagonally placed and viewed from the other side, the island.

LE CHÉILE: Welsh-Irish print collaboration, Graphic Print Studio, Dublin

Current leg of the print collaboration moves to the Graphic Print Studio, Dublin featuring digital print Edge of land (Borderlakes) and a screen print from the Surface of Colour.

BSC Innovation Barry Public Art Commission Work in Progress 5

Paintings in progress at the end of March. Several key areas are applied including the tha large light orange sweep of the harbour wall on the right painting. Edges and how the areas dry are crucial in the effective construction of the image within a tight deadline. Click title for photos of work in progress and studio progress.

BSC Innovation Barry Public Art Commission Work in Progress 4

The primed canvases are now ready to begin painting and the first areas of colour are applied. The process of locating forms and shapes from the digital sketchbook, drawings and other material is now of paramount importance as the ideas for the content of the paintings develop. Two paintings looking at and across to each other, being on the island and looking toward the town, the town looking toward the island. Left painting, the town or perhaps how the town is seen from the island. Right painting the island, climbing looking back. (Click on title to view the photographs).

BSC Innovation Barry Public Art Commission Work in Progress 3

The stretchers are constructed and allow to settle for a few days, then the canvas stretched, sized and primed, 2 to 11 March 2009.

BSC Innovation Barry Public Art Commission Work in Progress 2

The stretchers are now being constructed after the inital drawing and plan verified, 21 and 22 February. (Click on the title above to view photographs).

BSC Innovation Barry Public Art Commission Work in Progress

These are the first studio picturs showing the initial drawing, floor plan (an excellent feature of the studio being able to look down on the actual shapes) for the two new artworks.

Commision for Business Service Centre Innovation Quarter, Waterfornt, Barry

Public Art Commission by the Vale of Glamorgan Council has provided the opportunity to create two new paintings for the foyer and reception of the Business Service Centre, Innovation Quarter, Waterfront, Barry. I will be creating two paintings that will interact with each other and the designated foyer space. Ideas have begun and a site visit will follow in the next few days.