Art and design, works in progress…
I started my career in a technical drawing office. Various jobs and several years after that I exchanged a wage packet for art college. That took me to London where I had a career in graphic design, somehow surviving the desktop computer revolution. A good deal of my design work especially in the early days, involved working in collaboration with interior designers and architects on environmental, retail, office design and marine projects. Aah those were the days. I never lost my urge to draw though, which brings me here.
I’ve been drawing all my life. It helps us to really see the world around us all; patterns, light and shade, atmosphere, juxtapositions. When you look at a drawing years after you made it, however bad you think it is or incomplete it may be, it will always tell you much more than a snapshot ever could. The strength of the wind, the warmth of the sun, how cold your fingers were. A few notes accompanying the sketch can help too, taking you right back to that time and place. I find a photo seldom does this on its own, but the combination of all three can provide all the information you need to produce work even decades after the event. This rarely happens of course, it’s a case of ‘one day I’ll do that’ while meantime it’s on to the next thing. Never stop learning, and keep taking the tablets, as they say…
These days painting ‘plein air’ with oils on canvas is often for me, the definitive statement of time and place. That is not to say working in the studio or in other media takes a back seat, far from it.
So much to do and so little time!