The Gardener Drawing

Artist Statement My drawings reflect the uncontrollable outside forces that can have a direct effect upon our lives and our approach to it. The processes and techniques used to create my portraits are unpredictable and therefore have a direct input on the final outcome of the work. The rationale for this is to remove the unhealthy pressures of always needing to get it right as well as preventing being over precious about achieving perfection and to be accepting of chance and risk as external influences. The intricate portraits I draw are of people I meet randomly whilst doing my street photography and are predominantly drawn onto archival tissue paper using either a 0.5 or a 0.2 mechanical pencil. Rips and tears in the paper are inevitable and totally unavoidable; an overly heavy-handed swipe of the pencil could cause the loss of hours of work and detail. Once completed the delicate drawings are then pasted on to a weathered or aged wooden board. At this stage there is a risk of further damage or even total loss of the work. Finally a thin coat of varnish is applied so both the drawings and boards are fixed and sealed, but again this is not without risk. Some boards are framed whilst others are left with exposed edges and my work varies in size ranging from miniatures to large-scale portraits. My unique approach creates an urban and a somewhat discarded feel to my work and depicts an uneasy balance between order and chaos and the direct effect both can have on our unpredictable lives.