Archive

We Are the Seeds, 2022

 

We Are the Seeds series, 2022, in the studio
Watercolour, ink, graphite & coloured pencils on 30% recycled & Fabriano paper
17″ x 14″  |  43.2 cm x 35.6 cm   &  59″ x 90″  | 149.9 cm x 229.6 cm

(THEY TRIED TO BURY US 
BUT THEY DIDNT REALIZE)
WE ARE THE SEEDS 

This series of drawings explore beyond the surface, the seen, the known of the natural world.
They are roots, branches, wings, mycelium, seaweeds; they are energy and vibration.
They are my versions of how living elements communicate with each other: measurable, recorded energetic language.

“The garden of the world has no limits except in your mind.” ~Rumi

 

 

 

Qualia Forest, 2020-22

Graphite, watercolour on hotpressed paper
63 x 48 cm

When thoughts, ideas, challenges, visions, imaginings and dreams all come together in conscious experience that is yours along yet strangely part of a whole.

Entanglement, entrainment, consciousness, awareness.

 

Bio Balloon drawings, 2019

As often happens in the studio, these little drawings developed on a whim. I had biodegradable balloons bought years previously for a friend’s memorial and had been playing around with making bio ink. The light coming through the window was exceptional. I thought the ink might actually stain the balloon material but the material shrunk pretty quickly distorting the marks making these photographs extra special.

Time passing
Friends remembered
Colour squeezed
Spontaneous mark making
Light shining
Ephemera captured

Akin Uncountable 2019

Akin Uncountable | Four in series
Graphite, coloured pencils, soft pastel on paper
Sizes variable from 150 x 120 cm to 165 x 120 cm

Gathering the Gap Botanicals 2018

Gathering the Gap Botanicals
Boiled botanical prints with graphite & watercolour | 19 x 19 cm
20 pieces

Gathering the Gap 2018


Gathering the Gap drawings

Graphite, graphite paint on paper
42 x 59 cm
32 drawings

For this series of over thirty drawings, I used pressed botanical pieces salvaged from experiments with boiled prints to draw from, arranging them from top to end, creating an enclosed space. These contemplative drawings reminded me of staring into space at night when you see a layer of stars, then another and another. The endless perceivable space contained by the objects within our periphery is the gap of unknown, the divine matrix or the dream state where the musical overlaps with the tangible and in some small way, these pieces represent those possibilities.

 

Naviculam Chorus No.5

Naviculam Chorus 2016-17

NAVICULAM CHORUS  |  2016-2017 ongoing
Daily drawing practice | Graphite, chalk pastel on paper
Sizes vary, approximately 72″ x 60″/183 x 150 cm

This ongoing series of drawings speak to me and from me about the rhythms of the sea, of growth on land, of living creatures; of humanity in connection to our fragile yet resilient natural environment. Linked aesthetically by the shapes of boat parts coupled with organic patterns and circles representing portals, they are my love songs to nature and meditations on my relationship with her.

Naviculam, latin derivative pertaining to boat, boat shape or diminutive of ship
Chorus, latin for dance or group of dancers

What the Sea Remembers with Desire Line, in situ at the Ranger Station Art Gallery, Harrison Hot Springs, BC, Canada

What the Sea Remembers 2016

What the Sea Remembers  | 2016  | Graphite on paper  |
each panel 30″ x 22″ (76 x 56 cm), seven panels in total

A drawing in seven parts, this is a visual narrative of beauty in the details and of the falling away of all of those elements through time. Perhaps we are left to question what is at the end of what feel like frightening decline? Is that where we shall begin again? How do we view the demise of this beauty? Can we focus only on the beauty, the minutiae, the details, the possibility for re-growth?

What actions can we take; what actions do we take? Are we in the cacophony, or in the silence, or that liminal place between?

What the Sea Remembers with Desire Line, in situ at the Ranger Station Art Gallery, Harrison Hot Springs, BC, Canada

Of Land Of Sea studies 2016

This series, Of Land  Of Sea studies, is where my focus on many aspects of ocean life and the metaphors that spring from it, meet the land.

I began making from clay and drawing coral after finding two pieces of endangered coral tangled and ultimately destroyed by fishing line. They became a tangible, poignant metaphor for what is at risk in the ocean environment, but also work to connect the man-made with the natural.

The use of the circle in this context can pertain to many objects: a microscope, telescope, porthole or Petri dish; it is the formal element that contains the loosely drawn organic shapes. The lines of cut silver paper, suggest mapped streets, measuring markers or directional lines. The shapes of boats permeate this series from my work of the last two years, ever mindful of its presence and still a perfect metaphor of the human psyche.

In my art practice I am thoughtful about materials used and what they may say about the work being produced. I chose to draw on reclaimed OSB (particle board used for building houses) realizing the use of such a matrix provides depth of meaning to the work given the etymology of the word Ecology: Oikos, from the Greek for House and logos for knowledge. Our environment, our home, our knowing.

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Size (Inches/centimetres) & prices
Click on image to see painting number

1-7 of photos above – Of Land Of Sea #8-24 | 12 x 12/ 30 x 30    $600
8-15 of photos above – Of Land Of Sea #1-7 | 24 x 24/61 x 61    $1350

Each piece was cut and surfaced with PolyFil then sanded. A coat of clear and regular gesso was mixed then painted over the surface. This was sanded then repeated. The drawings are sealed with Liquitex pouring liquid and mat medium.  All pieces except Of Land, OF Sea #1 are unframed.

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Paintings documented by Byron Dauncey

 

Row the Boat Out 2016

Row the Boat Out drawings  | 2015 – ongoing, thirty drawings (2017) |
Graphite, graphite paint, watercolour, acrylic on vellum
25.5″ x 17.5″ / 64 x 45 cm

Drawing is where my mind wanders and is allowed to explore outside of measurements, plans and particulars. These pieces are where the subject of the boat becomes the most symbolic. In the absence of any human presence the boat can be seen as representative of the human condition. It is the shadowy place of the dream-world; the longing, the balance, imbalance or the vessel that catches hold of both beauty and decline. The dark shadows are the gap, the outlines suggest a past, a remnant or a connection. The coral, tentatively outlined but perhaps not completely present, suggests the risk the ocean beings are in and other sea life fills or hangs on to the boat shapes representing how intertwined humanity is to the sea and its life giving creatures.

In the Row the Boat Out series, the images unfold and link quite organically to one another. The paper becomes warped and the paint is pulled into the valleys of the surface, having used graphite paint and vellum in a process of letting the materials do their own thing. There is a little bit of magic in this; the artist’s hand is apparent,  but so too is the will of the material itself.

A form of meditation and observation, I consider drawing to be the foundation of my art practice.