Really good the see recent drawings up together with mountain paintings in the Grampian Hospitals Art Trust's Small Gallery at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
Offered the exhibition back in late December 2016, once Christmas was over I took some time out from other work to start a series of 'close up' composite drawings for it. I wanted to show them alongside previously completed mountain paintings and large scale drawings.
Walking across moorland I was becoming as interested in what lay underfoot as the wider landscape. What at first glance seemed a relatively featureless terrain was in fact full of flora rich in variety, colour and detail. Focusing in on the intricate world of sphagnum moss beds, grass clumps and rocks, my aim was to represent these features and textures as landscapes in themselves. Using a variety of drawing materials, papers and sometimes digital print I collaged different elements to form cohesive landscapes, 'rock maps' and 'moor lumps'. In this exhibition these sit in contrast to the larger scale drawings encompassing wide mountain vistas and 'bigger view' paintings, they play with scale and offer another dimension to my ongoing investigation of the mountain landscape.
The Small Gallery is an interestingly intimate space for a hugely busy hospital hub (many thousands of people walk through here each year) and the 'long corridor' further on is filled with art work from GHAT's big collection, including Toby Paterson and Kate Downie as well as a space curated by workers at the hospital. Together with The Suttie exhibition space upstairs (also GHAT) which has changing exhibitions, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary is a really interesting art destination.
'Walking the Moor' GHAT Small Gallery at ARI 2nd March - 14th April 2017