Drawing On Gesso
People often look at my work not sure what media it is, is it some kind of photo or a print? They comment that they have never seen anything like it before.
My artworks are all hand drawn with a pencil, however I do not work on paper; this is because the textured surface of paper always becomes an integral part of a drawing, however my work is purely about the image, I do not want the substrate to interfere with it, it exists free from it’s substrate. Firstly I take an mdf board (mdf because it is extremely stable and smooth) it is then sprayed with gesso and lightly sanded down to give a very smooth surface onto which I draw directly. I use a very hard 4h pencil, because the surface is hard anything softer creates too much loose graphite. The images are built up with very small marks, I do not ‘shade’ but embed each stroke within the gesso. Gesso is an unforgiving medium to work on, unless the mark is very light you cannot rub it out, so I have to work carefully and meticulously.
Finally I have the boards sprayed with a protective acrylic lacquer which effectively makes the work wipe clean.
The art critic David Lee said of my work “It’s not often you find work that wants to draw you in”. I think part of this is because of the purity of the image achieved through my chosen media.