Rheda Wiedenbruck

Over the christmas holiday's I took a trip to the quaint little village of Rheda Wiedenbruck, around 25 miles from Bielefeld. It was really nice to spend the afternoon mooching around the Christmas market and buying a few presents to take back home.

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

From Salford to Bielefeld, via Rotterdam.

So the journey begins. Setting of to Hull from Salford, Lancashire the first leg of the journey is relatively easy - a 90 mile drive to the Port of Hull to board the Pride of Rotterdam Ferry.

The Port of Hull (6.10.09)

On the deck of the Pride of Rotterdam (6.10.09)

Once on board I had 14 hours to relax and enjoy the scenery!

A ship in the distance (6.10.09)

And for those who know me all too well I did manage to get in a little crochet action to pass the time..(6.10.09)

Then an overnight sail across the North Sea into the Port of Rotterdam gets me safely onto the continent.

Good morning Rotterdam! (7.10.09)

Sunrise over Rotterdam as we sail into the Port (7.10.09)

A little weary and tired I set of driving again - 219 miles through The Netherlands and over into Germany straight to Bielefeld, my new home for the next three months.

On the final stretch of the Autobahn as I approach the city of Bielefeld (7.10.09)

As each week passes by I will continue to share with you my experiences of living and making new art works at Artists Unlimited.