An update from my dad's workbench. He's carved one of his sheet phantoms skipping over a waxed driftwood pebble, like some kind of seabed creature...

Sleepy as heck but yes..!

🔥💀🔥

Ah yes, when he gets back to the parent's house! Probably appropriate that the film now seems like a half-remembered dream...

Mark Jenkin and Gwenno on stage at Chapter listening to a mercifully short question from the audience.

I'll never learn. Attempted an after-work film screening on Thursday night at Chapter. Mark Jenkin's The Rose of Nevada. As always I nodded off and probably missed a good 15 mins or so. Still, the Q&A afterwards with Gwenno was entertaining (and only left time for two short audience questions 👌)...

An update from my dad's workbench. He's carved one of his sheet phantoms skipping over a waxed driftwood pebble, like some kind of seabed creature...

If I made a telly show I'd simply have completed shooting scripts ready to go *and then* begin pre-production, but that's apparently crazy talk...

Heh, this came up in conversation earlier in the week (currently working with the designer)! Blimey...

Happy 50 Years to Johnny! Launching my new business, Undead-Me...

I was very much on board post-murders (I felt the lack of spark between Scott and Flynn dragged down the first section). I found all the hotel flip-flopping highly entertaining...

A Maine Coon named King playing Lucio in Netflix’s 'Ripley.'

- Two cast MVPs: Maurizio Lombardi as Inspector Ravini, very funny, and this guy...

- Serious graphics envy, the prep time these guys must've had, all that lovingly reproduced 50s paraphernalia (those chequebooks, phwoar), I did a mini gasp each time Ripley visited a newsstand, the clearence budget alone, dang (a glimpse into what it's like watching things with me)...

The place I'm renting in Cardiff has Netflix, so catching up on the things. I warmed to Steven Zaillian's Ripley the more it went on, despite misgivings over casting and the harsh digital black & white look. Mainly the simple pleasure of all the traisping around stunning Italian locations, mmm...

Stoneware piece. Two stylised wild dogs, one standing on the back of the other.

A fine stoneware piece I enjoyed at National Museum Cardiff earlier.
Cŵn Gwyllt (Wild Dogs) by Catrin Howell, 2003...
"Animals and the roles they play in mythology are a constant theme in my work. I am fascinated in the way they are used to convey narratives, both ancient and contemporary."

The kingdom of Brycheiniog was established in the 5th century by a revered Welsh patriarch named Brychan and survived until its subjugation in the Middle-Ages. In the later Mediaeval period arms were assigned to Brychan, his quartered shield featuring the purported arms of his father Anlach. In the first and fourth quarters; black with a gold bar across the centre and two smaller bars above and beneath that (a cotised bar) with silver sword at top and bottom; with the arms attributed to his mother Marchell, gold with three blue bats.

Good evening from the three cerulean blue bats on the arms of Brychan, adopted by Brecknockshire County Council upon its establishment in 1889... 🦇

- And finally, in 'Sculpture I want to make into a lino print' news: it's 'Satyr on a Seahorse', German School, 18th century, artist unknown...

This work has the appearance of being a woman in traditional Welsh costume. The gender, however, is ambiguous with the inclusion of a beard. 'Glory Glory' is series, which Ford produced for the Wales pavilion of the 51st Venice Biennale. It explores people's stereotypical conceptions of national identity.

- A visitor to the gallery from another realm... 'Glory Glory (Hat & Horns)' by Laura Ford, 2005...

At the crack of dawn, the miners are off to work. Amidst the grey and sepia toned landscape, we are drawn to their presence. George Poole himself a former miner, was all too familiar with this morning stroll and did not hesitate to illustrate aspects of this life. As the figures drift towards us, the neutrality in their expressions suggest a sense of action and urgency: they have prepared themselves for the day ahead.

- Also this nice atmospheric expressionistic piece by George Poole (new to me), Welsh Miners Morning Shift, 1953...

Blimey, that's a lot of it to be closed off..!

GREEN LUNG To follow up their magickal This Heathen Land album, GREEN LUNG headed to deepest Wales to record with a gritty '80s London vibe. ran their ideas past an ancient Road Man, and got Indian food recommendations from Judas Priest

"When people see the album cover and the whole concept, they'll get it. It's not This Heathen Land Part II, but it's still Green Lung, and there's still Richard Wells doing the art."

@greenlungband.bsky.social in the studio for album four in the latest Kerrang mag. Yep, I'm still here! New artwork reveal fairly sooooon...
🚂💀

Stoneware piece. Two stylised wild dogs, one standing on the back of the other.

A fine stoneware piece I enjoyed at National Museum Cardiff earlier.
Cŵn Gwyllt (Wild Dogs) by Catrin Howell, 2003...
"Animals and the roles they play in mythology are a constant theme in my work. I am fascinated in the way they are used to convey narratives, both ancient and contemporary."

Indeed, I read the spiel next to the painting in his voice...

A portrait painter and specialist in scenes lit by candlelight, Schalcken lived mainly in Dordrecht, though he spent 1692–1697 in England. Dramatically illuminated by a guttering candle, the girl opens the shutter, perhaps to welcome her lover.

Gottfried Schalcken klaxon at National Museum Cardiff 👌🚨...

Yes. One of five...

Lino print. Shrouded skull wearing a crown gilded with gold pigment.

Gilded lino print I picked up at the printer's fair at Hay-on-Wye castle yesterday. By The Gilded Tower (find them on insta) 💀✨...

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Morbitorium...

Jewelled skeleton in a coffin holding a scythe.

Frog coffin.

Cat with a curiosity cabinet behind.

Doofus stood in front of a Wicker Man

Some sights from yesterday's trip to the Morbitorium, a cabinet of curiosity (but a whole house) nestled within a sleepy old mining village in the valleys of south Wales. They had one of my dad's wood carved ghouls on display and a Wicker Man in the back garden...

Farewell Angela Pleasence. A real treat to see her performing alongside her father in the stonking 'Act of Kindness' segment in anthology classic From Beyond the Grave. José Ramón Larraz's moody psychological horror Symptoms (1974) is another favourite...