Drawing

Loss

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Loss (63×45 cm approx)

This monoprint took a while to get going – the stark contrast between the red and black and the middle part with little in the way of openings didn’t give me any hints of where to start. But this impenetrable surface eventually steered me towards using the central enclosed space as an area from which tentacles/veins could flow out and into. I wanted also to keep the work ‘organic’ and tactile. At the end of the process I toned down the red slightly although the colour is still a ‘bit in you face’.

Dance II

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Dance On (image 70×50 cm)

Another tree inspired monoprint with coloured pencils. I was thinking about the mycelial network connecting trees when ‘drawing’ the roots of the trees. Keeping to mostly red the colour is depicting this support system and the interdependence of living organisms – the Gaia theory depicted on paper.

Dance On was longlisted for the Royal Scottish Academy OPEN Exhibition 2019 – the final selection will be published 23 October.

Being

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  • Being IV
  • Being VII

Staying in my comfort zone of graphite …. although most of these new works in this series are a slight deviation from my usual ‘fur’ works which seem to be hard to step a way from.

Having listened to a lot of artists’ interviews on the net it is clear that most of us make some initial marks, be it planned or experimental, and then we just follow the demands of the work. Beckett saw art as an act of translation and Barnett Newman said ‘one cannot really say it – one can only paint it’. I’ve also come across the view that art is a place for expression, and especially for the expression of that which we are less clear about. So this is what the images are – something that wants to be communicated in this way. Sharp edges and soft layers finding that they are part of the same unit.