Landscape
3″ x 5″
Charcoal on Paper
2023
These landscape drawings are about time and place. After completing the Little big men series I decided to abandon searching for images on my phone and started using digital photos I was taking of the environment, using my phone to create a visual diary of the landscape. I decided to continue my relationship to the phone as the source of my reference material and continue to draw images that were the same size as the image on the phone.
I was interested in applying what I had learned about the subtle application of charcoal to landscape drawing. When I used the image on my phone as a reference, I realized that there was a limitation on how much detail I could see in the image. The small format of the reference image limited the amount of detail I had for the small drawing. This reduction of detail reminded me of the American landscape movement that was popular at the end of the 19th century called tonelism. The tonelists had a set of limitations on there approach to landscape painting: reduced detail, limited palette and a focus on the mood of the environment. Paintings like Whistler’s Nocturne series came out of this tonelist approach. While doing the figurative drawings, I embraced the challenge of using limited information and this became one of the dynamics that I enjoyed about the process. Creating realism from efficient mark making.
I once again found my process being affected by my relationship to digital technology. I was taking the photos on my phone, drawing the image the same size as the image on the phone, taking pictures of the finished drawings on the phone and then sharing the images on the phone. The images were no longer being sourced from the digital environment, but from the actual environment I was in. I try to keep the drawing process close to the actual environment by doing the drawings while still in that place. I recently spent time in Newfoundland and Southern Ontario and did drawings of those environments. I have now been doing drawings of the west coast environment in Victoria.
