Water Drawings

'Oak, Air And Water' August 2023, Ink, River Water, Pencil, Carbon

W33 x H25cm

Increasingly I find inspiration in scientists’ explorations of the natural world.

In particular I have taken an interest in the work of Monica Gagliano and share her interest in the ideas, ancient traditions and knowledge of the indigenous rainforest peoples.

In 2017, when visiting Lady Park Wood with ecologist George Peterkin and The Arborealists, I spent about an hour or so just walking about and sitting in the wood, seeking a sense of it that was beyond the visual. I resisted the temptation to begin sketching or even taking photographs and allowed myself the time to perceive with all of my senses. What I felt more than anything was that I was surrounded by water - not only the water flowing beneath the wood in the River Wye but also the water that moved and flowed, however slowly in the forms of the trees.

This impression of water in movement is reflected in the lines of the trees; in their patterns of growth, in the shapes formed in their trunks, limbs and bark; the lines flow like water.

Since then I have begun to pay more attention to thoughts about water that quite literally pour themselves in to my mind. I take time to listen to the ‘song’ of the water before beginning work.

My process for making these ‘water drawings’ is derived from my desire to give space to those impressions. In doing so I have let go of the conventional pictorial space, instead I allow the shape of the drawing to be dictated by the water. I then look for correlations in the scene before me and incorporate them into the drawing. It is an intuitive and interpretative process.