About My Drawings

Making drawings is intrinsic to my work practice. These drawings are made on watercolour paper and cartridge paper. I have an intuitive approach, where I often start by making random marks with an idea in mind. These marks are made with ink, diluted watercolour or pencil. Colours or tone are built up and shapes are refined and then worked into to create detail, and then sometimes gesso is applied to block areas out. The theme of this work has been mainly about the act of performing. For example, a figure on a stage with a costume on and props to aid the performance. Stories about circus life I find very inspirational, “Lennie the Monkey- Jockey Act, …Just after the python died, Lennie died too…In came the pony with Lennie riding as surely as he ever had. Lennie was crouched low in a little saddle made especially for him… It used to give me the shudders to see the ghost of Lennie riding around the ring as pert and as cheeky as ever. I was relived when he did collapse, in the middle of a show(48)…” Tightropes, bunting flags, balancing and contortion have featured. I use the setting of inside the big top, often with a spot- light defining the space in which the character is performing; usually there are lots of circles present in these compositions.