To be outside in the landscape reacting to a place is always exciting, because it is always different and pushes you to work quickly and not over work. Our Northern Irish weather is a huge factor, in constant shift…
November skies are soft, with muted light, clouds sit low, stillness, whooper swans fly in sets above us, calling, rain and wind showers become more frequent, the dunes feel damp.
I want to bring these experiences into my drawing… capturing a likeness is often restrictive and stifling and makes my finished drawings feel tight and over done.
Keeping the process of drawing and painting intuitive matters… often the quick, in the moment paintings are what works best, fewer marks, but gestural and playing with materials, whatever i have to hand keeps the drawing alive. … and let my marks feel like mine and seep into my paintings back in the studio.
So my marks are quick and reactive, and colour helps describes mood and place. The marks on the page are the wind in the dunes, the gulls overhead, and the flow of the incoming tide… it is the feeling of being there that excites me.
The Barmouth shoreline at Castlerock Drawing is a way of reacting to a place and using all your senses in your marks on a page
on location
Working on drawings at the Barmouth beach, castlerock