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 currently.
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 currently.
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.
Whew!, 2019 Graphite & ink 45cm x 35cm
I wanted to find the subject matter on the page and therefore evolve from a more layered place than a single overlaid literal vision, which, if seized upon too early, threatens to dull the breadth of the creative process, or run the risk of commercial stultification too early in the journey.
Armada, 2019 Graphite & ink 10cm x 15cm
The work is emphatically non-representational as a point of entry but nonetheless surfs the tension between representation & abstraction; hinting at other worlds; dynamic organic creatures, landscapes and other peculiar forms.
Equus, 2019, Graphite & ink - 35cm x 30cm
Nothing exists in a vacuum and as a formal context, I draw from specific sources of fine art and illustration, both from contemporary and late 19th century genres worldwide, specifically from Britain, China and Japan. I have been equally shaped in total by the tensions and raw vibrant aesthetics of Sub-Saharan Africa.
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 or investigating the metaphysical. 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
Gordon Glyn-Jones - 89 of 90, 2020 ‘Uhtred Solo’ - Graphite-ink (10 x 15cm)