Last month I spent two weeks on a residency at Dumfries House, near Cumnock. The landscape there was mostly farmland and trees, with a lot of rain. I went in to the residency fairly open with no predetermined idea on the work I wanted to make, so one of the first things I did was go out and draw in order to settle my eye in.
These drawings are way more figurative than my usual approach. I struggled at first, I think the flatness of the landscape I was in didn’t help. Im much more used to drawing from varied places, places where scenery and scale change a lot more dramatically. I often lock into these sorts of elements, whereas in Scotland everything initially appeared to be the same forms and it was all very green. These first few drawings I made in order to make myself properly look.
I really had no idea on any sort of specific plan or outcome, I just thought I should draw. I decided upon using watercolour to match the constant drizzle, and the more I drew the more I began to reduce down to what it was about the landscape that interested me. I noticed that I was drawing the shapes formed by the fences and the stone walls of the intercepting farmland. The perspectives of these drawings began to warp too, I didn’t want to draw too much sky which initially was a challenge as that made up over three quarters of what I could see. So I began to stretch areas, making certain shapes and areas way bigger in my drawings in comparison to what they actually were in order to avoid the large space that is the sky.
A lot of my time was spent walking around and drawing like this, with them becoming more and more reduced down. Taking from the landscape the shapes and colours hoping to land upon something that works as a composition. As it got dark I would go back to the studio to draw and paint in the evenings. It took a while for the studio side of the residency to come together. I was unsure of what direction to take the work in and how to use the days drawings and develop them into something more complete.
I started to hit upon a particular way of drawing. On an A3 size piece of paper I began pulling shapes out of the drawings in my sketchbook. Initially these followed tightly those compositions and appeared rigid like the one above.
They then began to grow and shift. Flicking through the sketchbook more and combining shapes from different drawings, the studio drawings became more and more their own thing. I really liked how they sat on the page, with the blank space becoming just as important as the drawing itself.
I began to think of these drawings as mounds. I like how the word links back to the ground and landscape, and how they grow on the page taking on their own natural shape. I would start drawing and then stop when it felt complete, not feeling the need to fill an entire page or particular shape.
They feel like a personal development. A direction I want my work to go in in terms of approach to drawing. It has been a long time since I have gotten into a good flow with drawing, I don’t think I do enough of it anymore and when I do, I have begun rushing them with a pre conceived idea of what I want it to be in my mind, which is never a good thing.
Finally I wanted to share these drawings from right at the end of the residency. I did these in the pouring rain on the last evening, seeing it as my last chance to go out and capture the surrounding landscape before I left. They don’t particularly link with what I have been talking about here I just wanted to share them. I think their softness contrasts nicely with the solidness of the work I had been making on my time in Scotland. Although I am not sure if I will ever come back to them.
Love your mounds! Also sodden watercolour ARE a great contrast.