Exploring the world of line art - my journey.

Starting with realism in early 2020 I was fascinated by the way my drawings looked photo realistic, even though up close they lacked precise detail. Interested in visual perception, I began to experiment with impressionism. I wanted to see with how few details I could render an image that was believable to the viewer. With impressionism I was able to exaggerate colours and capture the light and beauty in a scene, the way I experienced it. I love the boldness and gestural mark making of other artists, such as Chris Long, Vera Kober and Richard Musgrave-Evans but I still had the tendency to overwork my art. I know my strength is my ability to depict light and colour. What would happen if I took that away?

I decided to start a new project in minimal line art. I was attracted to this style by it's simplicity, and curious as to whether I could capture light and mood in a piece without any colour or tone. By controlling the quality and thickness of the lines I was able to capture light and beauty, particularly in figure drawing. Committing to posting a new piece of line art everyday allowed me to let go of perfectionism and find joy in imperfections. The human mind is amazing, and all it takes is few lines creating broken shapes for the viewer to comprehend the subject. I had managed to create a minimal, simple and delicate aesthetic, but I hadn't yet pushed far enough.

The minimal line art project was delicate and beautiful, but art in and of itself is under no obligation to be beautiful. “Just two lines”, was the full extension of my journey into reductionism and unapologetic mark making. In this series, I created the form of each subject using only two hand painted bold ugly gestural lines. This process allowed me to toy with audience perception, walking the line (pun intended) between direct observation and abstraction, creating depictions of subjects that are at times easily discernible, and at others, merely familiar. Almost, but not quite recognisable. Like a word that's stuck on the tip of your tongue. Recently I have moved away from minimal illustrations and have been been using this project as a space to lean into my own creativity and expression, creating designs inspired by emotions, experiences, music and song lyrics.

Recently I have moved away from minimal illustrations and have been been using this project as a space to lean into my own creativity and expression, creating designs inspired by emotions, experiences, music and song lyrics.