Welcome to my artist space. In the last three years I've focused on the practice of drawing every day and sharing the work to social media as central to who I am as an artist.
A few years ago I visited the National Palace Museum in Taiwan, which houses many art treasures of China, (rescued or kidnapped by Chiang Kai-shek, depending on your perspective). I encountered pieces that had taken one artist a lifetime of repeating a single physical movement to master - total obedience to a single craft. I found the idea refreshingly different from the expectations laid at the feet of contemporary artists.
Rather than begin with concept as point of departure with the current project, I decided to begin with moving material around on the page and create from there.
A few years ago I visited the National Palace Museum in Taiwan, which houses many art treasures of China, (rescued or kidnapped by Chiang Kai-shek, depending on your perspective). I encountered pieces that had taken one artist a lifetime of repeating a single physical movement to master - total obedience to a single craft. I found the idea refreshingly different from the expectations laid at the feet of contemporary artists.
Rather than begin with concept as point of departure with the current project, I decided to begin with moving material around on the page and create from there.
Flytem, 2019
Graphite & ink
10cm x 15cm
With this in mind, I set about creating a daily process, focusing almost entirely on the daily ritual, rather than the subject matter.
The goal was to establish a unique visual language, avoiding the limiting influence of premeditation.
The goal was to establish a unique visual language, avoiding the limiting influence of premeditation.
Whew!, 2019 Graphite & ink 45cm x 35cm
I wanted to find the subject matter on the page and therefore evolve from a deeper place within me than a single literal vision, which, if seized upon too early, might threaten to imprison me for years afterwards, as I've seen it do many of my contemporaries.
Armada, 2019 Graphite & ink 10cm x 15cm
The work is emphatically non-representational as a starting point and surfs the tension between representation & abstraction, hinting at other worlds; living creatures, landscapes and other peculiar forms.
Equus, 2019, Graphite & ink - 35cm x 30cm
Nothing exists in a vacuum of course and as a formal context, I passionately draw from specific sources of fine art and illustration, both from contemporary and late 19th century genres worldwide, specifically from Britain, China and Japan.
Troisbewoki, 2020 Graphite & ink 10cm x 15cm
I do have distinct subject areas that arise but ultimately they are layered, nuanced, intuitive; often autobiographical or auto-analytical. Most importantly, I lead with the visual language rather than a digestible canned academic treatise and therefore, invite you as viewer to be a kind of co-creator or co-conspirator.
Entitled-Kite, 2018 Graphite & ink - 55cm x 25cm
Each series evolved from the last. So I began with a drawing every day for 30 days, then 60, then 90 and 180. Then in the latest 90 drawing series, I shared a piece every three days.
Wolfellite, 2019 Graphite & ink 45cm x 35cm
I am still deciding on the sequencing of the next series, because I am also returning to painting and this needs to dovetail time-wise with the daily drawing practice. See what I decide, as well as the whole development over five hundred images since the beginning of the project here: Instagram: @gordonglynjones
