9m24cm

Just a few pictures to show you my progress on the huge drawing I am making for my exhibition in January. The drawing is made in 3 separate parts and this is the first of the three. I think this piece will be on going right up to the instillation week in January when my show opens. In between making this piece I am continuing to make other experimental drawings, mainly playing with form and composition on a variety of scales.

Just the beginning stages..

making good progress..

A state of becoming....

I've been busy all week composing some new drawings with repetitive lines: continuing with  stacking, layering, erasing, ordering.. this is the latest drawing from the series of 'tumbling and stacked boxes'

Untitled: 5 tumbling boxes (graphite on paper, 42 x 59.4 cm)

I have also decided that for my exhibition I will make a drawing using this process that will be installed in one of the gallery spaces at the Artists Unlimited Gallery.  The space I will mount the drawing on will be across 3 walls with a total measurement of 9m 24 cm - so i have really got my work cut out for this piece.

Again i am plotting found and randomly generated numbers into a polygon which has been mapped out and masked off to give a straight edge - trying to give some order to the disorder of repetitively drawing and erasing lines -( and everything that occurs in between)

The piece does not have a title so far, but I am noting down how many lines are being drawn during each drawing session, and I suspect that this may have an influence on the drawings title in the end.

Here is the beginnings of what is going to be a very long winded process..

 

Just the beginning...

I have also been playing around with a process of drawing a series of quick lines, whilst blind folded, to generate some new ideas about creating new forms, playing around with confined spaces and environments on the paper surface. To help me to see the forms more clearly I have decided to give each newly determined form an identity - either a graphite surface or a specific colour. I'm really enjoying creating these new shapes and compositions from a simple few free formed lines, understanding forms and putting things into a new order feels satisfying and intriguing.

I don't really see these as finished works, more like small sketches of investigation into how line creations can lead to complex surfaces and structures. ... like creating a state of becoming something rather than being static..

A few examples - I have made many of these pieces

Made across five separate surfaces and positioned together, the order of the pieces can be changed around

Water colour and pencil

Back in the studio,,

I'm very settled in the studio now and I've been getting down to some serious drawing business.

Actually, it's not all that serious! - I've been having great fun!

Lately my ideas about using some form of systematic approach to composing a drawing have felt like some what of a burden. This is mainly the reason why I decided to bring an empty portfolio with me.
My drawings have recently started to get quite complex, mainly working with collected and self generated drawing instructions.

One of the things that I decided before I came on this residency is that I would of course carry on with using rules and systems, as these are the things that underpin my whole practice, but instead of using hundreds of instructions (which have been collated in books for the past few years) I would strip things right back and start pulling out the instructions which most interest me.

1) blind drawing

2) plotting polygons from randomly generated and found numbers *

3) repetitive hand drawn lines

I've come to learn that with these combined instructions alone lies enough scope for  lots more interesting and versatile outcomes.

First and foremost though... my work is playful and whimsical and to put it into a few words, my drawings are about investigating the process of drawing.

Some would say they aren't about anything at all - and i may just agree on this.

Plotted polygons and hand drawn stacked lines (graphite) (15.10.09)

Studio wall with drawings and new instruction sets (15.10.09)

Small drawings involving blind drawing processes, plotting randomly generated numbers and repetitive hand drawn lines (15.10.09)

Close up (15.10.09)

3 completed small drawings (15.10.09)

* a closed plane figure bounded by straight sides