"Life and its Replacement with a Dull Reflection of Itself (Preliminary Theses of the Pleasure Tendency)" Ballpoint pen on paper, 15 x 20 cm. #MastoArt #FediArt #Art#mastoart#Drawing#fediart#sketching #ballpointpen

Detail from a new charcoal drawing. I was working on this piece yesterday and felt uneasy about it as it declared itself too easily. In the night I took it right back. Lifting the veil it became luminous. The full work is 110 cm x 55 cm and remains on the easel […] [Original post on toot.wales]

The mayflower (hawthorn) is in glorious bloom at the moment and that being so here’s a poem for May. More poems on my website if that’s your kind of thing. #poetry

I’ve been making my own willow charcoal over the last few nights and if you’d like to try it, it’s a very simple process and produces a lovely charcoal. 1. Cut sticks of willow and strip off the bark; 2. Place equal thickness lengths in a tin can and cover the […] [Original post on toot.wales]

Detail from a new work — ‘Fragile State’, charcoal on paper, 76 x 55 cm. One of a few recent drawings that I’ve put up on the website today. https://www.julianbrasington.co.uk/drawings #drawings #art

‘Carneddau’, charcoal on paper, 56 x 76 cm Seen on a walk from the village to Maeni Hirion | The Druid’s Circle. #drawing #art

A drawing that started loose, then hardened into certainty and had to be pulled back. Charcoal on paper, 56 x 76 cm (22 x 30 inches). #drawing

‘Untitled (April V), charcoal on paper, 50 x 38 cm. One of a series of recent works which begin as figures and are then worked into landscape. #drawing

For those who like to read about process, a short account of the metamorphoses behind a ‘finished’ drawing. https://www.julianbrasington.co.uk/studio-notes/unparticled-marks #drawing

Untitled (April) VI. Charcoal, 50 x 38 cm. Half memory, half place, all weather. #drawing

The form begins to turn. A face mapped in charcoal dust with fingers. Should’ve stopped there but I didn’t. Still learning to trust my instinct. #drawing

[Face — vacant / sad] Distressed face — in both senses of the meaning. Underneath, a tonal drawing which I distressed with the palm of my hand and then worked over before distressing it again. I find it both hard to look at and hard not to look at. I guess […] [Original post on toot.wales]

Untiltled (March) II, charcoal, 56 x 76 cm Been spending a lot of time looking up lately

Having spent so much time over recent years bent over small blocks of wood and lino it’s liberating to be working at scale. Charcoal drawing, 56 x 76 cm (22” x 29”). #drawing

I’m currently working on a manuscript which explores seeing and making through the lense of poetry, drawing, and reflection — the critical question being how we can see without fixing. This charcoal drawing is at the core of the work: half seen — emerging and […] [Original post on toot.wales]

"Die Ordnung herrscht in Berlin" Ballpoint pen on paper, 15 x 20 cm. #MastoArt #FediArt #Art#mastoart#Drawing#fediart#sketching #ballpointpen

‘Untitled’. Charcoal drawing 29 x 42 cm (11.5 x 16.5 inches) on Somerset Textured paper. This drawing in many ways reflects the direction of travel of my work and the ideas of transience and emergence that underpin it. I’ve uploaded it to the homepage of my […] [Original post on toot.wales]

Charcoal drawing, 76 x 56 cm (30 x 23 in). A fun piece to work on and a good lesson. There was a point at which the work really was done and foolishly I tidied it up by adding detail to one eye — I lost much of what was good about the face as a result and ended up […] [Original post on toot.wales]

It’s been a long time in the making, but I now have a new look to my website: studio notes, poems, a small selection of drawings and prints. It feels good to have finished it and to be able to get back to a different kind of making. https://www.julianbrasington.co.uk

I’m in the middle of a major rebuild of my website and am currently curating the work that I’ll show there. As part of the process, last night I gathered together ink-jet printouts of some of work that I’ve done over the last few years and laid them out randomly […] [Original post on toot.wales]

First proof print from the finished block. The columnar basalt cliffs of Rubha Hunish on the northern tip of Skye. 75x75mm wood engraving. To the right, the engraving in a lemonwood block, after printing.

Wouldn’t it be lovely if all was calm, still, and not subject to the whim of a few self-aggrandising people and the machines that support them. Perhaps one day. Until then, here’s a short poem I had published in Ink Sweat & Tears in 2024, and a linocut I made a […] [Original post on toot.wales]

First proof and this is one I am really going to have to think about. 15 x 15 cm linocut, mostly improvised on the block and suffering in the end from too much happening. That said, if you like detail, it might be worthwhile wandering around inside it for a bit […] [Original post on toot.wales]

Detail from a linocut work in progress. This is a block I abandoned a year or so back and came upon last week. It’s one of those ‘let’s see what happens pieces’ and I’m enjoying playing with it. Hoping to proof it next week before deciding where to go with foreground (not in this picture). #linocut

One for the poetry peeps out there. You can read similar stuff at: https://www.julianbrasington.co.uk/poetry #poetry

Living on the coast, it’s perhaps inevitable that the sea flows through my work and so I’ve added a filter to my website that allows you to search for seascapes in the shop. This photo shows a few of the prints and drawings that you’ll find there […] [Original post on toot.wales]

‘Looks like murder’, 22 x 20 cm linocut of The Street, Castle Combe. When I printed this piece it struck me (with its brooding blacks and stark whites) as a scene out of a 1930s murder mystery — hence the title. It is a print I made some three years back and such […] [Original post on toot.wales]

A still night in the mountains. ‘Un Nos Ola Leuad’ (one moonlit night) is a 4.5 x 6 cm boxwood engraving which I have hand-pressed to Somerset Satin paper. If you know North Wales, you’ll likely recognise Castell Dolbadarn as its subject. The title for the print […] [Original post on toot.wales]

Watercolour on Two Rivers handmade paper, the thick stuff. 79x56 cm.

Just mailed out my latest newsletter. If you’d like to receive them in the future, you can subscribe from my website and unsubscribe whenever you want. The latest one has news of a recent commission by Amgueddfa Cymru / Museums Wales which I am looking forward to […] [Original post on toot.wales]

Wide format so you may have to play with this. 14 x 43 cm charcoal and Pierre noire drawing in a Stillman & Birn soft cover sketchbook. Eglwys Sant Baglan sits on the shore of the Afon Menai (Menai Strait) in North west Wales. A few years back I made a wood […] [Original post on toot.wales]

Charcoal drawing based on fragments of a 12C baptismal font housed in the Musée Art et Histoire, Bruxelles. Somerset Satin paper, 56.5 x 26 cm. I had intended more detail in this drawing but I reached a point yesterday where it felt finished. It said enough. And […] [Original post on toot.wales]

Came upon a box of Conté pencils when I was tidying up this afternoon and got distracted. Not quite got the angles nor the shade right on this drawing but it was good to work with the pencils. Just need to finish tidying up now. #drawing #conte

Cold hard stare. Sketchbook drawing — graphite on Ingres laid paper. #drawing #portrait

New blog post on drawing without looking at your drawing. You may find it interesting if you’re looking to try something new. https://www.julianbrasington.co.uk/blog/the-hand-knows-what-the-eye-sees

Been doing a lot of these lately. Compressed charcoal on heavy cartridge paper. #drawing #charcoal

Sat listening to Ólafur Arnalds ‘Momentary - choir version’ on loop and with my eyes closed I got the urge to draw with my eyes shut. I put two A3 sheets of paper together on my easel, shut my eyes and, with my right hand holding the top of the easel so that I […] [Original post on toot.wales]

The things that lodge inside us. Saw a stunning cloud formation yesterday and went to draw it in charcoal and this happened. I do and don’t like it as a drawing. The little house was added as a final touch and was unintended at the outset. It makes the […] [Original post on toot.wales]

Layered drawing. Working through an idea. This was going to be bigger and then it felt right to stop so I stopped. Lines in graphite lain one upon the other to see what can’t be seen. One of a series of pieces that I’m working exploring the hidden. Zoom in and walk around. #drawing

Currently working on a charcoal and Pierre Noire drawing on this abandoned Ty Hir. It’s a place that I visit often and have watched steadily decline. #drawing #ynysmon #abandonedplaces

Pen Llŷn. Work in progress. Charcoal. Not sure how this one will turn out. I’m building it up slowly in the hope of holding onto the light. #drawing #charcoal

Just posted a short blog which borrows from John Berger’s notion of point of crisis in the drawing process and applies it to the writing of poetry and the trickery of words. The image is a detail from a linocut of mine called ‘Between words’ […] [Original post on toot.wales]

Tidying up my studio today I came across a very light ghost print that I had made a couple of weeks ago. Rather than stashing it away, I decided to work on it with a mix of willow charcoal and compressed charcoal. Very liberating. #drawing

I’ve had this piece on the back-burner for a year or so now, wondering what medium I might use. Decided to give monotype a go the other day and I’m pleased with how it’s come out. The print is 10 x 18 cm on Sunome Senaka paper. The verse is a poem of mine. You’ll […] [Original post on toot.wales]

New monotype print on Sunome Senaka paper, 12 x 21 cm. Pressed using fingers and a pencil.

Monotype on Kozo paper. I’m enjoying this process — nothing planned and but a rectangle of black ink to work from, it’s all in the moment. #printmaking #seascape #art

I’ll be exhibiting at Oriel Glasfryn, Caerwys, alongside ceramicist Pierre Williams and four wales-based artist printmakers Saturday 19th July through to August 25th. Private view this Friday. I have 20 framed works on show so it’s a good opportunity to see a […] [Original post on toot.wales]

Incidental monotype. I ink up on a glass plate when printing and cleaning up before lunch today I swept a palette knife over the glass to clear up spent ink and saw something like this. I masked an area, lay a sheet of Kosho paper on top and burnished the ink onto the paper with a spoon.

A short account of my first attempt at etching with copper sulphate. https://www.julianbrasington.co.uk/pen/a-first-etching #printmaking #art #etching

Spent the day exploring etching with fellow artist printmakers Aimee Jones, Andy Abram, Ann Lewis, and Jane Evans. A new process to me and one that I thoroughly enjoyed and will definitely return to. Happy to come away with this 10 x 10 cm piece. #art #printmaking #etching