Two pastel drawings featuring in Immersion

Today, I’m sharing two drawings that feature in Immersion, showing at the Old Haa Museum, Yell, Shetland, until 22nd September.

‘Ruin (after Eileen Agar)’

2023, pastel, 300 x 300mm (framed)

This was made during the Royal Drawing School’s Online Drawing Development Year in 2023, and reimagine’s a photograph by Surrealist object-maker and painter, Eileen Agar. The images she created on her travels often focus on strange corners of places and quirky details. I was interested in exploring a sense of uncertain space and shifting shapes, prompted by the fascinating wandering lines and crumbling walls that Agar captured in her photograph.

‘Tree (after Paul Nash)’

2023, pastel, 308 x 228 (unframed), 388 x 300mm (framed)

This work is also inspired by a photograph from the 1930s, by fellow Surrealist Paul Nash. Like Agar, in his photographs subjects are given a strange presence, and the camera seems also to be a way of finding the abstract shapes and rhythms in things. Nash captured stark dynamic lines in dead trees and twisted branches, so it feels like you're seeing through to their essential energy in his photographs. Through drawing, I was interested in further exploring this sense of nature’s forces existing beyond the visible.

The Old Haa is open right through the weekend - please find details below.

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IMMERSION - an exhibition of drawings

3rd – 22nd September 2024
Old Haa Museum, Brough, Burravoe, Yell, Shetland, ZE2 9AZ
Mon to Sat 10am – 4pm
Sunday 2 – 5pm

Most of the works in the show are for sale, as well as a selection of cards, prints and smaller drawings.