What began as rough drawings on freezing winter days progressed through materials research with ground stone and pigment, developed into compositions via repeated charcoal studies and have finally emerged as intense, yet ethereal mixed media artworks.
Looking back through my studio journal I realised that images of alders have dominated the last six months, although the idea itself was in gestation for four years prior to that. Good things come to those who wait? Or at least to those who keep a sketchbook.
I’m coming to the end of this intense studio phase now and I have almost finished a substantial body of new work. I’ve called the series ‘Thin Places’, referring to an ancient idea that the boundary between this world and ‘other’ (whatever that might mean for you) is fragile or porous in some places. These often feature water and so, given the alder’s association with burns, pools and boggy hillsides, it seemed to fit both intellectually and emotionally.
Whilst drawing in these places I found an eerie but intriguing stillness and a collapsing of time between my now and the lifespan of those landscapes, which I have tried to convey through the finished works.
Meeting the alders
I found this tree on a steep slope near Langholm in the Scottish Borders. It seemed to hold stories from the past in its form: it was hollowed, split, cut, grazed, wind-blown and yet still standing solidly there in the sunshine.
Time really does stand still when you’re drawing. As I drew it, I tried to listen in on the story and gather up the threads around it, the disintegrating branches, the hoof prints, birdsong and the spring breeze. All my drawings start with an encounter like this and I carry these sketches, memories and feelings back to the studio.
On the drawing board
I gradually layered up the surface of cradled wood panels with shale and slate pigments, graphite, acrylic ground and charcoal, added and erased again and again. I’ve enjoyed how this surface prompted and interacted with the drawn marks. It also lent itself to scraping and scratching into, allowing me to excavate the lights out of the charcoaly darkness.
This process evolved into a way of working which seemed to fit the history of the tree and its long seesaw life of growth and removal, regeneration and decay.
Where to next?
I’m still exploring some ideas with my charcoal monoprint technique and prints will be available at my next open studio. A group of the mixed media ‘Thin Places’ will be available from Kilmorack Gallery later this year and others will be in a summer solo show at Arundells in Salisbury.
You can see the full series of ‘Thin Places’ mixed media works here and if you’re in the Edinburgh area you’re very welcome to visit the studio to see them up close – just get in touch to arrange a visit.
You can also read more about my inspiration and processes for this work in these blog posts:
Two days in the Aberdeenshire alders
Spring tree trip to Dumfries and Galloway