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Two eyes, joined. Charcoal & oil pastel, 2022 |
I have only recently exorcised a bit of a hang-up about drawing, which I traced back to my art-college days, when tutors would question every element of what we did. I came away with the impression that there were ‘right’ things to draw, i.e., this drawing relates specifically to my art practice, so it is a valid drawing. I have always used reflective writing within my practice and have had no issue with writing out my thoughts, whatever they may be. This seems very natural to me. What is the problem with drawing then?
My paternal grandfather, Robert Barltrop was an artist and writer, who produced beautifully accurate pen and ink drawings for publications, including a regular drawing for the Recorder newspaper in London. I was in awe of these drawings and in my childhood mind, I felt that this level of draftsmanship was something that I could never achieve. I did, however, have a strong drive to draw and it wasn’t something that I could leave behind.
My granddad on my mother’s side, James Cable, carved wood as a hobby and was also artistically talented. I lived with my maternal grandparents for two years at the end of Junior school and Granddad Jim helped me to draw more difficult subjects, including horses, which I loved as animals and to draw. I have done drawings my whole life: my mum tells me that, as a toddler, she would give me a magazine and a pen, and I would happily scribble away. I carried on drawing throughout school and when I worked on the circus, although I showed my work to only a couple of people, as I thought it wasn’t good enough.
It was while having a bit of artist coaching from The Hour Collective, in 2020, that I was challenged on my assumption of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ things to draw. My coach, Helene Roberts, asked me why I thought this about drawing and why it couldn’t be used as a reflective part of my practice, in the same way that I use writing as a reflective tool. This made me realise that the baggage I had been carrying around about drawing was making me limit what I allowed myself to do. This realisation really freed me up to trust myself and draw when I needed or wanted to. Interestingly, some of the drawings I have done do fit into my practice, even though I was not necessarily aware of how they were going to fit when I made them.
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| Quick warm-up sketch |
Since starting Grow Your Own Artist (a year of research and development of my own practice, funded by Arts Council England), I have been having conversations about how to switch from my ‘day job’ headspace of arts marketing and writing, to my ‘artist’ headspace on my studio days. Something that was recommended in Beth Pickens’ book, Make Your Art No Matter What, is a warm-up exercise before making artwork, which could be listening to a piece of music, dancing around, writing, drawing… anything that works for you. My mentor Philippa, suggested drawing as a warmup and this is something I have occasionally done in the past, so it seemed like a good fit for me. There’s a kind of joy in drawing, and it allows me to reconnect with the mechanical-body-brain side of making art, as I spend a lot of time creating digital work. I come into my studio and make a drawing of an object that catches my eye. Sometimes it is a drawing that I would be happy to let someone else see and sometimes it doesn’t work so well, but that is beside the point. It is the process of drawing that frees up my mind and allows me to enter the headspace that I need to be creative.
Drawing has many different purposes; it can explain something to someone in a visual way (a map on a napkin), it can represent a facsimile of a place, person or object, it can be a way of articulating thoughts for your own benefit, and it can be for a sense of joy. I will keep drawing, what I like, when the need takes me, and leave the drawing baggage behind.
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