Pen And Ink Drawings

These drawings begin with close-up observations of the environment around me. Working with pen and black ink on paper, I investigate the details, textures, patterns and structures that often go unnoticed in everyday surroundings. I am interested in looking closely at familiar things and discovering visual qualities that extend beyond their immediate identity or function.

Although these drawings originates in observation, I am not concerned solely with producing a direct or descriptive representation of what I see. Instead, I allow the process of drawing to transform the observed subject. Through the accumulation of lines, repeated marks, tonal contrasts and overlapping forms, recognisable details can become fragmented, distorted or absorbed into the overall composition. The drawings gradually move between representation and abstraction, retaining traces of the observed environment while developing their own visual language.

Working exclusively in black ink allows me to focus on the relationships between light and darkness, density and openness, structure and irregularity. I am particularly interested in how marks can communicate the physical qualities of a surface while simultaneously creating rhythms, patterns and forms that exist independently of their original reference.

The act of drawing is therefore both a process of observation and a process of discovery. As the image develops, unexpected relationships emerge between marks and forms, allowing the drawing to move beyond what I initially drawn to. I see these works as investigations into how close observation can lead to abstraction, and how the familiar environment can become unfamiliar through the act of looking and drawing.

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