An invitation to see the Glen Rosa drawing, Harbour Arts Centre, Irvine
Exhibition “End view”, 8th January 2015, 7pm – 9pm
An invitation…
This large graphite drawing is now just about finished. I plan to leave it for the next couple of weeks before returning to it at the start of January. I’ll then have four or five days in which to do any final work needed. I started the piece just over three weeks ago on November 25th and so it’s taken me a lot less time than I’d originally thought.
As you’ve seen, the drawing has been built up in a series of layered marks. The early stages being pretty time consuming as I gradually covered the paper in a series of scribbled marks. As each layer went in though, the structure of the piece started to become more apparent and once this was completed, I started changing the nature of the marks I was making. I used a much softer (9B) graphite pencil to generate darker and much bolder marks, especially in the foreground.
The drawing however was always meant to be based on a day back in January 2012 when I walked Glen Rosa with Nita and our friend Guy. It was a very cold day and at the head of the glen the snow came right down to the banks of the river. It was a wild scene of snow and rock and mist. So then, in order to try and create the feel of this winter morning, I started to use a soft rubber to cut back through the graphite, creating negative marks that give the impression of snow and cloud. This was actually quite hard work as the rubber quickly gets covered with graphite and I constantly had to clean it so that I did not get dirty looking smudges all over the piece..
At the moment, I’m quite pleased with the way it’s looking. It certainly captures the scale of the place and I think conveys quite well what it can be like in amongst the Scottish hills in winter. That said, I also like the fact that when you get close to it you are just left with a complex series of lines and marks……it’s quite abstract
The drawing will be in the gallery until the end of the exhibition on January 9th. If you haven’t already seen it, do call in some time or accept this invitation to the exhibition “End view” on the evening of 8th January, 7pm – 9pm …..It should be a good event and it would be great to see as many of you there as possible.