Drawing development at Blue Monkey Shared Space residency

Blue Monkey shared space residency at Eastbourne College, led me from ash and brush work via bare feet and a huge mess to in-line skate drawings 

Shared space residency with Blue Monkey network

I'm in this big big space made up of three spaces connected - there is light and silence. Energy and fear. Blue Monkey shared space residency is at Casson Art School studios, Eastbourne College for two weeks. There are 5 artists working alongside me Angela Smith, Juidth Alder, Sharon Haward, Pat Thornton and Claire Shoosmith.

It's day 3 and my emotions have ranged from arriving in total exhaustion on the first day to a frenzy of energy and excitement - taking risks and feeling at home producing large scale work. There is fear of course that helps keep it turning over. 

I am going through ideas I have been playing out in my mind for a long time now which need a larger environment these include 3 series: contact drawings, ash lines and alteration drawings 

I started with cutting up ash line trace drawings with Roni Horn in the back of my mind, I like her pigment drawings which she cuts up and pieces together meticulously. I am experimenting with the trace drawings to see if they will go any further. 

The first intervention drawing 

I placed paper around the studios and taped it down in order to get going, I made a black pigment brush drawing and then 'shot' the pigment off the edge the result was a lovely trace line of pigment which resonated with the intervention above

The second day was pushing beyond and taking risks I took my socks off and stepped onto the big ash circle trying ballet steps around the paper getting pigment, ash and charcoal all over me and the floor the result was a huge liberating mess! After mopping up I re painted it with gesso.

...and then I put on the rollerblades. Wanting to make contact drawings where the body and weight make marks that are ambitious roller blading across the paper through and over ash was the idea. 

Once I had gained a bit of steadiness by rolling around the studio several times much to the amusement of my fellow artists I started an inline drawing rolling back and forth whilst videoing it holding my phone. It was lots of fun and just what experimental art should be. 

These works are very much a continuation of my interest in the landscape and its inherent materials. Working in Eastbourne very close to the South Downs has a strong relationship with these materials. 

Concentric circles

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. 

Charcoal burning

Making charcoal in Heathfield - an experiment to find the biggest bit of wood I can successfully charcoal, results so far have been mixed. The biggest log of ash we used splintered into big chunks but doesn't make a very good mark. I think the Alder and Pussy willow are better mark makers. I have tried all sorts of wood to see which works better though its almost impossible to remember or recognise which is which after its burned! 

Jerwood drawing prize

I entered along with over 2000 others for a place alongside 70 in the London show of the longest running drawing prize just daring to hope I might be accepted.

I was!

This is the drawing. 1x1.5m in graphite and charcoal called Longman.

I did have another one of a different section of the same hillside ....but I tore it up in anger. Was that wise I now ask myself?