One Sketch #67) Ibex

It cannot be too hard to cope
With the fact I'm not an antelope
So would you people please take note
Misnaming me really gets my goat.

Yes, I felt for variety's sake I ought to pick something other than a Swansea building to sketch for today, and so I came to settle on the ibex. Why? Well, I'm a long time quizzer, and the ibex is one of those creatures where people almost always get the wrong idea about what it is. If you ask people what sort of mammal is an ibex, I guarantee that the majority, if they answer at all, will call it an antelope. Yet it's a goat, and when you look at it, it is hard to imagine why anyone would think that it's anything else.

One Sketch #66) Mount Pleasant Baptist Church

A place of quiet prayer
And of peace
Transplanted to South Wales
Via Ancient Greece

Yes, being as it's half term week and Swansea is literally on my doorstep, it's another sketch of an interesting Swansea building for today. I look at the portico of the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, and more than anything else I'm reminded of the original Tate Britain Gallery in London.

One Sketch #65) Mumbles, Swansea

The pier's still closed
And that's a shame
But at least there's ice cream
All the same.

Took my grandson all the way to Mumbles, which is about half an hour down the coast from Port Talbot, only to find that Mumbles Pier is still closed for renovation. It was the same story last year, and I have to say - what's on it which takes so long to renovate. I mean , it's just a pier - no buildings to speak of apart from the lifeboat station, just a boarded platform reaching out to sea.

One Sketch #64) Urban Sketching in Swansea

Although not every building
Is of very great renown
There's much to see
And much to sketch
In our ugly, lovely town.

Bank holiday Monday, and having returned from visiting my parents in Worthing I was itching to get out and about with my sketchbook again. I bought a new pack of pens, and was champing at the bit. Beautiful weather in Swansea today, and now that I'm sitting back in the house I'm feeling a bit burned again.

One Sketch #63) Waterstone's Swansea

A real Aladdin's cave indeed
For those who dream
And those who read

Yes, this imposing branch of Waterstone's is in fact the Grade II listed former Carlton Cinema, originally opened in 1914, and closed as a cinema in 1977.  I moved to South Wales in 1986, and it would be several years after that that the building would reopen as a branc of Waterstones. The original ornate spiral staircase has been preserved, but everything else of the cinema interior has long gone, sadly.

One Sketch #62) Saturday 26th May, Grand Theatre, Swansea

I could've been upon the stage
If Life had turned a different page
It's too late now
So blame my age.

Swansea's Grand Theatre - originally opened in 1897, so Victorian, if only just. It was bought outright by Swansea council in a rare act of foresight in the 1970s, and is still owned and operated by the council today.

One Sketch #61) Lazerzone, Swansea

Laser fighting's not for me
It's really not my cup of tea
I find activities like this
Bring out my latent pacifist.


As an end of course treat I accompanied a group of pupils to Lazerzone in Swansea. Lazerzone, as the name suggests is a place where kids get to shoot each other with Lasers. Rather than slicing each other to pieces, all this does is set off sensors on their vests which register hits and convert to points. I'm sure that you know the sort of thing. What makes Lazerzone interesting to me is that it takes place in the building of what was previously the Castle Cinema, and indeed, the rear of the building, sketched here, still has the castle cinema sign on it.