ash lines

stepping stones

Its hard to articulate why I make work; I do it instinctively - so there's something in the FEEL of doing it. I think while I am preparing the surface, in recent pieces that's painting board,with gesso (or even a step before that, mixing gesso from chalk powder). Then sanding it back looking and feeling for a lead into how the piece is going to progress all the time semi-concious of recent drawing trips and body memory of repeated drawings and movements, I develop a relationship with the surface. 

This also feeds directly into performance/movement drawing - feeling a rhythm and being aware or knowing what will come next by letting the body move only in the moment. Some decisions are concious and these are fed by accumulated knowledge or preference.

I leave a space for interpretation; I make a suggestion - I can't say exactly what the images are as they are an amalgamation of choices and influences throughout the process of building up marks. Influences such as music, mood, location, experience, temperature, a line that repeats, a curve that fits.

So I paint then sand back. The surface and I are now familiar with each other - we have built a relationship. Sometimes the surface dictates a line and I follow its lead, or I make the first move and the surface responds. what follows is the struggle which concerns the image coming forth the desire to control and restrict it. This tension is what makes work sing. 

To manage this dialogue I work on 2 or 3 pieces at a time, allowing unworkable elements to co-exist with more successful ones I like the sense of progression there is always something to move from and onto; like stepping stones I leap across one to the other. 

Art after the drapes

Having spent the morning drawing drapes at the Beacon, Hastings I took advantage of the bright sunlight plus the fact i still had all my drawing gear with me and drove on up to the country park near Fairlight. It's interesting to note that in my drawings during the still life session of drapes there was an unmistakable presence of what can only be described as landscape. 

This is actually very exciting as it demonstrates I that I now approach subjects in a way that is unquestionably my own language - I have talked about having a visual language of marks and lines before but sometimes the penny drops right down into the slot and I take a significant step forwards. Trying to decipher what drawing is about is sometimes ruined by over analysing but occasionally there are moments of clarity in what is for me an intuitive and almost unconscious process that I am trying to understand better.

Here are the rest of the sketches from Hastings looking over to Dungeness power station. A mixture of charcoal, compressed and home made, black pastel, graphite and chalk.