On automatic drawing

I have been creating what I call ‘automatic drawings‘ for some time, they came up in my show in 2021 with my digital curtain and fabric designs and are now taking on another path……

Starting out with random dots or holes, I join them up in an unplanned way, this is what I call the ‘automatic’ or the free fall bit. What is interesting to me in these drawings is they look like they make sense in the end, probably revealing my conscious mind is, after all, in control of the process.

The idea is that everything is connected in some way, however controlled or not, says to me that everything and everyone is part of an ecosystem of some kind.

My automatic drawing process made it to the surface of fabric in my embroidery pieces shown last year in my Collectors’ View. Elements that are like the junctions were added on, I made random dots in the form of sequins, fabric dots and confetti people, thrown down to see where they landed, then sewn in. They were stitched on to a linen/silk fabric surface taken from a roll I found many years ago at a fabulous recycling centre in South London, called Chris Carey Collections. Some of these ecosystem drawings and mixed media works are already on sale via my onine gallery Balthasart.

I am now working this further in to three dimensions. With the thread, I am creating a tie to round paper cut outs so that they become anchored and I can build a sculptural surface. This links with my installations, bringing this format to the wall. The paper element structures can also be added to with more partly sliced pieces, stuck together by the tension created between the papers.

This development is giving me a chance to experiment in working from flatness to three dimensional structures in a finite space and so simple to display !

My first three-dimensional ecosystem – ‘Vibrant’ will be on display in the first-floor gallery at the Cheese shop, Dulwich, London for the next two months, alongside another first, my collaboration with South London Women Artists.