Drawing Paper

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IntroductionDrawing Paper is a freely distributed, not-for-profit publication funded and made possible solely by its contributors. Our featured artists pay an equal amount for their page which in total covers theproduction costs. With this model it ispossible to be liberated from the tediousrigours of funding applications and criteriaguidelines, enabling us to do things on ourown terms—Drawing Paper is a logo andadvert free zone.

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If you would like extra copies sent to you or your establishment please email us at something@mikesstudio.co.uk

We are looking for distribution outlets(gallery shops, studio groups, book stores).If you are interested in stocking DrawingPaper please email us for details:something@mikesstudio.co.uk

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Sincere thanks to all our contributors for their support, encouragement and enthusiasm.

All artworks copyright © The ArtistsPublished September 2011

Back cover photo: Jon Barraclough

Published and designed in Liverpool, UK by Mike Carney and Jon Barraclough.

www.mikesstudio.co.ukwww.jonbarraclough.co.uk

Printed in a limited edition of 3000 by Sharman and Company, Peterborough.www.sharmanandco.co.uk

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Another portable lo-fi drawing exhibition –still logo-free and still artist-led. The workwe’ve featured has developed for us aconversation about context – whether it’scontext for the completed image or objector the context of the time and place of thecreation and process of the work. This offersthe opportunity to consider site-specific and object-specific works and to explore the context in which drawers have drawn.

Some contributions are from artists who are on residency in new and unfamiliarsurroundings, such as the work of JordanMarani from Australia, Li Zhouwei andZhang Zhenxue from China, all makingimages in Liverpool. Another Australianartist, Michael Grant produced drawings onlocation during his Manchester residency.Frances Disley has made drawings ontodelicate ceramic hats and natural forms andthe context for Paul Evans’ massive drawingsis both time (Darwin Day 2009) and place –a church in Lincolnshire.

Drawing communicates threads ofsignificance that are attached to time, place,person and personal experience in a directand accessible way. So there’s no subject-based theme for this issue except that wecontinue to be inspired, amazed andfascinated by the context, range and diversityof drawing work that we either encounter orare sent. Please feel free to visit the DrawingPaper blog and Facebook page to add yourcomments and to see other responses toDrawing Paper.

We are working on our distributionmethodology just now and hope to makethis and future issues more widely available.If you are interested in having copies todistribute from your organisation or at your event please let us know.

Jon and Mike.

ADAM BATCHELORWatziznehmPencil, coloured pencil on paper380 x 560mm(2011)

MICHAEL GRANTVictoria Station (Manchester)Watercolour on paper 250 x 480mm(2011 )

BRYAN BIGGSHappy Ever After In The Market Place (detail)Ink and spit on paper210 x 148mm (individually)(2000 – present)

LI ZHOUWEILifeboatInk on paper1800 x 980mm(2011 )

ELAINE PITTWOODDrawing 6Pen and ink on paper550 x 555mm(2011 )

TIM SOUTHALLWolves in the WoodsEtching and aquatint on copper80.5 x 110.5mm (2011 )

JORDAN MARANIThe People You MeetGraphite, house paint on newspaper300 x 450mm (individually)(2011 )

DOREEN MCPHERSONTwo HeadsPencil and graphite on paper1140 x 840mm(2009)

SARA MAIAStraw HeadsIndian ink on paper 1100 x 1400 mm(2011 )

HARRY LAWSONEven the Stars look like a MessInk on Paper420 x 297mm(2011 )

SOPHIA CRILLYWalter HoppsFrom the series: Ausstellungsmacher / A History of Exhibitions & SpacesPencil on paper210 x 300mm(2011 )

FRANCES DISLEYAfter the Deluge (detail)Clay and pencilDimensions variable(2011 )

LUCY WILSONGoing HomePen and Ink (2011 )

HILARY ELLISPale Remembered IIMixed media770 x 770.5mm(2010)

RICHARD TAYLOR & ROSS HAMILTON FREW

Collaborative drawing:RICHARD house plant (bonsai balance), Pencil on paper.ROSS Plan for wall drawing, Biro on paper.(2011 )

PAUL EVANSLeviathanGraphite on paper4.5 x 10m(2009)

x-church, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, Darwin Day 2009. Photo by Dan Sumption.

ZHANG ZHENXUEUntitledMixed media2000 x 3000mm(2010)

HANNAH BITOWSKIDimensionalityScreen print on paper120 x 290mm(2011 )

ADAM BATCHELOR (UK)

Adam Batchelor’s work is about a breakdownbetween the real and the unreal, of societyand culture. It is about the interactionbetween these different worlds and howthey can be manipulated and influenced. It not only looks at the blurring betweencultures from the ‘developed’ and‘developing’ world but also looks into the impact of hyper-reality within modernculture and lifestyles. The work is alsodivided between detailed pencil work andthe comic abstraction of cartoon imagery.

The Circles series is a collection ofabstractions looking at subjects within themedium of the cartoon and the comic strip.Through these drawings I put forwardquestions and subjects that explore theComic on a socioeconomic point of viewand can hopefully raise interesting topics of discussion based on how it depicts theworld around us.

Watziznehm highlights the depiction of Indiansas magical and enigmatic Ghandi-Like figuresin an Asterix the Gaul Comic. Is this commonstereotype still thought upon and is this a callto change to assumptions of Hinduism andIslam in India?

adambatchelor.co.uk

BRYAN BIGGS (UK)

Bryan Biggs is artistic director of the Bluecoat,Liverpool. Trained in fine art at LiverpoolPolytechnic, he has maintained a drawingpractice, working predominantly small scale.Happy Ever After In The Market Place is anongoing project of over 1,000 drawings thathe has been engaged in over the past decade.A selection was shown in the JerwoodDrawing Prize in 2003 (Third Prize).

The drawings are made quickly and intuitivelywith ink and spit, starting with tentative marksbefore something recognisable emerges, the selection here focusing on faces. As thedrawings take on an improvisatory life oftheir own, the images become distressed by chance effects in the drawing process:splattered ink, smudges, scrawled words,alien or phantasmagorical elements. With no narrative intent, the drawings arenevertheless a sort of diary, made in responseto what seems like the daily unravelling ofcultures of greed, corruption and hypocrisy.

bryan.b@thebluecoat.org.uk

HANNAH BITOWSKI (UK)

The theme of self-perceived image isexamined in this body of work through theuse of print, paper and textiles. Portraiture is distorted and abstracted, challenging pre-conceived notions of identity to distractand submerge our initial perceptions.

These ideas are reinforced by moving the work into the realms of dimensionality, with the application of mathematics and symmetry.

Hannah lives and works in Liverpool and isbased at The Royal Standard, an artist-ledgallery, studio and social workspace.

Hannah.bitowski@googlemail.com

SOPHIA CRILLY (UK)

Sophia Crilly studied MA Visual Culture andBA Fine Art at Manchester School of Art.She is currently undertaking a practice basedPhD in Curating at the University of Salford,where she is a part-time Lecturer in Critical& Contextual Studies. She is Director andCurator of Bureau, a gallery in Manchester.

Walter Hopps is a portrait fromAusstellungsmacher / A History of Exhibitions& Spaces, a new series of pencil drawingsdeveloped from a personal collection offound and archival images. The series looksat the history of exhibition making over thelast century; key protagonists – curators,critics, architects, and galleries – that haveshaped and informed the display andpresentation of art and the spaces it inhabits.

Two works from this series were selected for exhibition in the Jerwood Drawing Prize2011, Jerwood Space, London (14 September– 30 October 2011), and touring the UK2011–12.

Crilly has exhibited internationally and undertaken residencies in Helsinki and Rotterdam. Her works are held in anumber of private collections.

sophiacrilly.com

FRANCES DISLEY (UK)

Frances creates work that challenges themedia’s current negative representation ofteenagers. Transforming society’s wastelandsinto magical landscapes Frances seeks toemphasise the exciting yet terrifyingtransition from childhood to adulthood.

The work After the Delugewas created bydipping porous objects into clay-casting slip.The original object then burns away whenfired; leaving a clay shell that holds the sameform. Reminiscent of scrimshaws, intricatelyengraved whale bones created by sailors,these fragile objects tell tales of adolescencethrough the delicate pencil drawings ontheir surfaces.

Frances is a director and studio member at The Royal Standard Liverpool.

francesdisley.com

HILARY ELLIS (UK)

Hilary Ellis uses pen, pencil, ink, needles,beads, threads and perforations to creatework invested in texture and surface.Meticulously building up layer after layer,and combining lines made using thread with those that are drawn and scored, sheexperiments with different combinations of process and media and explores therelationship between creativity and ritual.

Both religious and secular societies rely on a framework of ritual which orders chaos,and instils a sense of comfort and safety thatcan also feel restrictive and narrowing. It isthe space created by this dichotomy whichHilary Ellis explores. Ellis’s works are mixedmedia aggregations of repeated marks andactions that desire exact replication but whoseinevitable deviations expose the frailty of the human hand in attempting the pursuit of mechanical process.

The use of thread and beads is deliberatelyreminiscent of the labour-intensive toil ofsweat shops, whose employees’ existence is reduced to a series of stitches. The works’restricted and predominantly muted palettehints at the ennui of such ritualistic andrepetitive creation, yet touches of colour – apink bead, red thread – constitute glimmersof optimism.

Hilary Ellis graduated from Liverpool JohnMoores University with a BA (Hons) Fine Art and completed an MA in Printmaking at Camberwell College in 2009. She had asolo exhibition with Sumarria Lunn at TheFrameless Gallery, Clerkenwell, London in2010 and her work has been shortlisted forthe Jerwood Drawing Prize 2011, JerwoodSpace, London (14 September –30 October2011), and touring the UK 2011–12.

hilaryellis.co.uk

About the artists

PAUL EVANS (UK)

I am a visual artist based in Sheffield.

My practice encompasses a variety of creativestrategies including drawing, painting andanimation. I use these to explore aspects ofthe complex field of relationships that existsbetween human beings and nature – in aneffort to challenge the anthropocentricworld view. I often work in series or throughinstallations and web sites that connectdisparate elements.

The large-scale drawing Leviathan is animage of a diving sperm whale (Physetermacrocephalus). It measures 10m in height –the same height as an Olympic diving board.The drawing was made in an effort to gaincomprehension of the vast scale of thisorganism; an attempt to see how we ‘measureup’ to the sublime immensity of such things.

pkevans.co.ukorigin09.orgosteography.wordpress.com

MICHAEL GRANT (AUSTRALIA)

“My most recent body of work investigatesthe legacies of the Second World War withinManchester, Liverpool and the wider UnitedKingdom. I have recently returned to Australiaafter a six week artist residency in Manchester,where I worked intensively both researchingthe war history and producing a body of work.The physical damage as a result of blitz wasrepaired long ago, but I believe the unseenemotional scars still linger on and forevermark places touched by war. Through mywork, I aim to convey the intangible feelingsone gets when visiting places such as these.”

Michael Grant is an Australian based drawerand painter. He studied MA in painting atthe University of Ballarat and has exhibitedboth within Australia and internationally. His works are represented in the AustralianWar Memorial, Canberra.

michaelgrant.com.au

SARA MAIA (PORTUGAL)

“My work is always about questions I askmyself – and usually there is no answer. I turn the questions into images and open,ambiguous stories. I explore themes relatingto human issues – human behaviour,affections, needs – how we organiseourselves socially and in our families.”

“The drawing Straw Heads explores ideasaround judgement and difference. I find itinteresting to try and understand how people‘read’ images – how several different storiesand emotions can be communicated from a single drawing or painting.”

saramaia.com

JORDAN MARANI (AUSTRALIA)

You / I see someone in a crowd, on a train on a plane,you / I overhear a snippet of conversation,a word here two words there,you / I sit down to recollect,your / my memory plays tricks,your / my mind plays games.

jordemarani@yahoo.com

DOREEN MCPHERSON (UK)

“I draw people and their faces. I like when I use graphite and pencil and use the rubberto where I do dark shading around the eyes,nose, mouth, cheeks and hair.”

Doreen McPherson is a member of Intoart, a London-based art collective. Her work has been included in a number of groupexhibitions including See the RevolutionaryArt ExhibitWhitechapel Gallery (2009) andStudio Voltaire (2007 and 2010).

Her forthcoming solo exhibition at StudioVoltaire, London runs from 10 October – 19 November 2011.

intoart.org.uk

ELAINE PITTWOOD (UK)

“My drawings are created using controlled-automatism; a labour-intensive process of conscious choice within an unplannedcomposition, governed by habituallyfollowed rules.”

“The work is inspired by automatism, atechnique that reveals the inner self throughsubconscious choice, but instead of freeingme from choice I am governed by it, eachmark is chosen. The use of automatism iscontrolled throughout the production processto determine the relationship between themarks and the white space.”

“My work follows the mark making processesof drawing and is influenced by obsessivemark making and duration drawing. I havecultivated a clear process of production usingcombinations of geometric and circular marks.The drawings communicate to viewers, givingthem the freedom to apply their personalmemories, influences and references andthen trigger thoughts and discussion.

I am based in Norwich and have recentlycompleted my Fine Art degree at NorwichUniversity College of the Arts.

elainepittwood@hotmail.com

TIM SOUTHALL (UK)

“My exploration in drawing is carried outwith an etching needle gliding over, or jabbingat, an etching plate: pushing and pulling adrawing from the inky blackness of a smokedplate. Then, using acids, resins and processesthat seem almost alchemical, a plain andunmarked metal plate gradually becomes a finished piece.”

“From delicate marks and ephemeraltextures, to plunging blackness and shadowyunknowns, the etchings seen here areunited in their efforts to push the medium in many different directions.”

“Wolves in the Woods is a narrative thatexpands out of the image boundaries withan ominous, a sense of foreboding with aquickening sense of the chase.”

timsouthall.net

LUCY WILSON (UK)

“The nostalgia you feel when picking up a pencil, your influences are endless and it feels natural to draw these things. Patternis a playful way to represent symbolism.”

“This is an illustrative pattern of my hometownenvironment, hopefully a nostalgia that lot’sof people can relate to. Various symbols areplaced theoretically within the pattern,encased in a plaque each bearing a meaningfor example: Fossils: Are often found onMappleton beach, imprints of shellfish and other creatures.”

By reviving traditional aspects of imagemaking, symbolism within nature forms thesoul of Lucy’s work, with dramatic use ofsymmetry it is versatile and a craft. Practicinga contemporary style, her work still graspsthe nostalgia in tradition. Lucy’s work isapplied to book making, gallery space and wallpaper design. Lucy also has workfeatured in the Ghost’s of Gone Birds Project.

Lucy lives and illustrates in Liverpool,teaching and encouraging bookbinding.

elizabethsheart.com

ZHANG ZHENXUE & LI ZHOUWEI (CHINA)

Two prizewinners from the first John MooresPainting Prize Shanghai who were inresidence this summer in Liverpool, hostedby Liverpool John Moores University andLiverpool Biennial.

The residency is part of an ongoing culturalexchange between Liverpool and Shanghai.

johnmooreschina.com

RICHARD TAYLOR &ROSS HAMILTON FREW (UK)

Since early 2011 Richard Taylor and Ross Hamilton Frew have been exploringcollaborative measures through theengagement of drawing in their practices. In anticipation of their forthcoming exhibitionat Superclub, Edinburgh in October 2011,they present a working drawing to DrawingPaper 4, in the form of a ‘plan’ for a curatorialmodel that will feature in the show atSuperclub itself. In their joint blog ‘Drawingas a form of collaborative exchange’, bothRoss and Richard have been overlaying ideas:the image they present here develops thisnarrative and is representative of the directframing of one another’s work within, ornext to that of the other.

Richard utilises drawing to conserve ideas,which are then either acted out, constructedusing found images / objects, or developedthrough written narrative. He actively stepsoutside the boundaries of the page, allowinghis drawings to become three-dimensionaland time-based. Ross on the other handconfines himself to the parameters of thepage, engaging in pattern to explore a moresystematic approach to the act of makingmarks. Ross’s drawings develop naturallyhowever small or large, allowing the ‘page’to have a multitude of appearances,rendering his work more sculptural andcuratorially applied.

rich-taylor.co.ukrosshamiltonfrew.tumblr.com

HARRY LAWSON (UK)

Harry Lawson is currently studying an MA in Sculpture at The Royal College of Art.

harrylawson.info