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Artist Statement
I have always found nature and landscape fascinating and the nature of my work is always evolving yet still concerned with the memory of the brief moment as if it was the past. In recent times I have wanted to explore how this idea could be captured in the form of a visual diary.
By walking in the landscape with my sketchbook I have explored the idea of being part of the landscape whilst not being a permanent part. My walks are just fleeting and transitory as I create brief images of the landscape in time. This has given me the opportunity to explore the link between myself and the land and I have used this as a way of mapping my personal environment and development. Using my sketchbook as a way of recording; much like an explorer or walker would, I notate the things I observe or carry out as a way of capturing moments in time. The incorporation of objects in my sketchbooks is a way of recollecting the different sensations’ experienced on my walk.
From all my sketches and research information I have been able to create a number of large scale mono-chrome landscape paintings which deal with lines, marks, memory and gesture. I established from my walk that I wanted to study colour in a very minimal form; much like the artist John Virtue, and not have colour to distract the viewer. John Virtue relates to my practice in two instances; his method of drawing and his large-scale black and white paintings. He is inspired by his observation of the landscape while walking and recording scenes of passing moments sequentially and lucidly. Walking is important to my practice and the engagement Richard Long and Hamish Fulton have with nature is relevant in their way of mapping and marking their own environment.
The creation of each sketchbook is unique and its purpose encompasses my personal interpretation and construction of my own cognition. My work is also tactile as it can be folded and unfold; represented as a whole or observed as one unit. I find that this format is valuable in drawing out my ideas and observations, seeing the progression of my sketchbooks as a timeline; as the observer you too are walking through each stage of my development, interacting and observing the nature of my work. These sketchbooks are reminiscent of Anselm Kiefer’s self-designed sketchbooks that had thickly layered textural qualities to them.
Layering became significant as I began to realise that layering drawings together meant that I could condense my observational studies to create new images using previous marks and lines. This condensing through layering then allowed three-dimensional forms to take place, and I could insert new meaning into the rendition of my drawing in an object. The representation of the layering became important in understanding the way marks and lines can overlay or cover over previous marks to conceal/fade a moment, but still have presence. The memory drawings highlight this concept as it involves layers of tracing paper that illustrate the recessional nature of memories and how the experience of a moment is carried further and further from the present.
My work is in flux with nature and time; the changing environments I experience and the impulse I portray in them produces a visual form that acknowledges my evolving ideas in flowing and dynamic visual records and images.
