methods 

From serial marks made on a variety of surfaces to photographs of my studio window, I explore the possibilities of drawing – offsetting photographic (light-drawn), tactile (haptic) and time-based (durational) modes of working. 

imprint no 4: felt pen on Hahnemule paper

monochrome series

I am developing a sequence of drawings using the 'wrong' end of a felt pen on Hahnemule Museum paper, the heavy etching paper I have used for my photographic prints.

I have wanted to explore further the themes of presence and absence that have been uppermost in my thinking whilst working on my recent video with its time-lapse photography.  The method I use is time-consuming, complementing the time spent taking photographs.  With fingers so often poised over the shutter-release (and the keyboard), I come to miss the physical engagement that drawing offers, and the release of ideas at the point of a pencil (whichever end). 

no 178 of 192 photographs taken 4am–12am

far left: 16 drawings (notes to self)

100 drawings

footlights

drawing and photography

I have taken several sequences of photographs oriented towards the window in my studio.  I have always been conscious of the many levels of distance from this vantage point – foreground, mid-ground and background vistas reminiscent of the pictorial space of traditional landscape painting and the drawing underlying it.  

The photographs exist in a variety of contexts and formats (printed, virtual and moving imagery).  However, I also think of them as sitting midway between photography and drawing – both from the point of view of method ("photogenic drawing"[1]), and content (tracing the sun's arc).

16 drawings (notes to self) was exhibited alongside its  related video and photographs at the MA by Project Degree Show, University of the West of England, 2012.

100 drawings was shown at Bisensual, UWE postgraduate artist exchange with Bergen National Academy of Arts, Bergen, Norway, 2012.

Footlights is a series of stills from xxiv, my original 24-minute video.

[1]   WH Fox Talbot: The Pencil of Nature; 1844

100 drawings (detail)

top left / studio window: no 178 of 192 digital photographs 
2nd left / 16 drawings (notes to self): digital photographs on Hahnemule paper; 18 x 23cm ea; installation with video and composite digital print; 2012 //
right / 100 drawings, detail // 3rd left / 100 drawings: digital photographs on Hahnemule paper; total size: 119 x 379 cm; 2012 //
bottom left / footlights: composite digital photograph; 2012

origins: older works

I have long been interested in the relationship between moving and still pictures, filmic screens and solid objects, hand-drawn and photographic imagery, and serial mark-making.

White Noise 3:4

36 screens

White Noise 3:4 is the first in a set of three made in 2002 using permanent marker on boards where dots from the marker tip traversed the board in rows from top to bottom and left to right – imitating the point of light in an analogue cathode-ray tube.  I wanted to make some 'white noise' by hand and to see if an image emerged if I kept on working until the marker ran out before picking up a fresh one. 

36 screens is an assembly of 36 individual drawings on boards made in a similar way but with vertical strokes over a horizontally brushed surface (cross-hatching), rather than dots (pixels) on a smooth one.

None of these images provided a ready image or story of course, and  clearly there were no 'play' buttons to get things going.  However, the imagery had narrative potential I felt, so I went on to explore the method.  And some stories.



See studio & narrative drawing galleries

top: white noise 3:4: permanent marker on gesso / 180 x 150 x 5 cm
bottom: 36 screens; each – felt tip pen on gesso / total installation size 180 x 150 x 5cm //

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