I recently tested out the idea of drawing on painted canvas. I painted the background with Stuart Semple’s Black 3.0 paint and then used a simple graphite pencil to draw over the top. Changing to canvas has added an element of texture to the drawing and, hence, imperfections in the lines, which I am happy about. I also appreciate the canvas's strength compared to the fragility of paper.

Although the above drawing isn’t finished, it has led me to several new ideas for future drawings. I am considering a combination of this style of drawing and the conceptual thinking behind the ash landscape/self-portrait I made for the Heysen Art Prize.

The Heysen Art Prize drawing (see images below) was a 3-D landscape drawing made of ash, charcoal, pigment powder, and dust. Hidden beneath the landscape was a self-portrait made from the same materials. Created on a sheet of perspex suspended from the ceiling, the portrait was only visible in the mirror below.

I first visualized this project in early 2020, post-fires and mid-COVID lockdown #1. Spending time with family during this time involved a lot of cooking on an open fire. This is where I collected the ash. The charcoal was collected from the fire grounds on the South Coast NSW. Using ash and charcoal as a material was both terrifying and illuminating.

This is an ephemeral drawing that has to be made on-site and disappears once the exhibition is finished. It is a drawing layered with multiple meanings: 

• The human embedded in the landscape

• The landscape not as a theatrical backdrop to the drama of human life but a deeply ingrained part of our existence, entangled and inescapable.

• Death, decay, and burial rituals

• Momento Mori, ash, death, dust, and the ephemeral nature of all things.

• Nárkissos 

• Ecological grief 

• Impermanence

• Creation and destruction

FUTURE PROJECT: I plan on combining both the canvas line drawing and this 3D ash drawing together in someway. I am particularly interested in the idea of the human embedded in the landscape - hidden, camouflaged, buried within a complex network. A drawing that acts as a reminder of the immanent consequences we will face because of our complete disregard for the environment in which we are embedded - we are part of a complex network that we seem determined to completely disrupt/interrupt/annihilate (I don’t know what the right word is).

I have also recently become fascinated with 3D Motion Graphics. I am currently in the frustratingly baby stages of learning Cinema 4D - inspired by the artist Michaela Stafford. It is through researching her practice that I came to learn about Technobiophilia: a field of research pioneered by Dr Sue Thomas that looks at how digital art that mimics nature has the same influence on human biometrics (eg: reduced blood pressure, reduced stress hormones etc) as when we spend time in nature. I am not sure yet of the validity of this research but it is something that is interesting to contemplate and something I want to look further into.