While on my travels I was surrounded by inspiration. Landscapes took my breath away, hours upon hours on buses afforded me time to mull over my experiences and a few tiny sketches on postcards were all I had in place of a studio practice. I'm not a great artist/traveller. When I'm travelling I'm doing just that, making my way from place to place, seeing all there is to offer, zooming around the sights. Making work while away doesn't come easily to me and it didn't when I was on my last big trip either. I made some postcards and drew a couple of sketches but that was it, in eleven months my pen had hardly touched the paper. There just wasn't always time or space, when there was time I'd draw but it would take such a long time to finish one postcard that I wasn't left with much finished work. When I returned home I decided that I really wanted to create a body of work inspired by my big trip, I wanted to make drawings from the tiny postcards and use photographs from the journey as a starting point for new sketches. In order to fuel the project I booked a slot in a local gallery so that I'd have an end goal, a place where I could bring everything together and show just how inspiring the journey was.
Pucon, Chile, 21cm x 14.9cm, pen on paper
Twisted Trees in Tierra del Fuego, 21cm x 14.9cm, pen on paper
The exhibition will be called From The Road, a nod to Jack Kerouac's On The Road which I read not long before setting off in September 2016. I am in the middle of creating work for the show at the moment, I have several drawings already made which can be viewed on my website here. In viewing the drawings in real life I hope the viewer will see the detail that I have attempted to capture and the overall impression of the landscape when you stand back. Each time I create a piece I am transported back to the place where it is inspired by, be it standing on top of a pass looking out over snowcapped mountains or in a forest surrounded by trees, mud and mist. If you are local to Hampshire then I'd love for you to see the show in person, details are on the poster below which was kindly put together by Bea at Sheep Shed Gallery.
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