Portfolio
...Building Land Biographies
....we must feel its soul to care
Land Biography is a system of land recording created through PhD research to generate care for a place...
As I mentioned in my Bio -
My aim is to represent the land's beauty in such a way that others can be inspired by it, enough to care.
Factual information is a large component in appealing to their conscience, but the real carrying power to persuade people to care comes through a different element, and on another plane. It comes through feelings, through stirring emotions, through sensitivity.
As artists, we can access sensitivity, and I feel this privilege comes with an obligation to reveal meaning.
Initially I made a key collection of the colours and textures of the Liverpool Plains food producing region, which gave me the colour palette I used for all the final exhibition artworks. This process contributed to my growing feelings for the Plains. This 'key' grew into a large artwork, and was sold in the exhibition!
The Process
Working from the micro to the macro,
I begin by familiarising myself with the subject through gaining a deep understanding of the place - its flora and fauna, landuse (usually farming or grazing country), landscape shape, and colour etc.
I make field sketches, colour swatches, texture samples, take field collections etc, until my field diaries are full of visual information.
Then I tentatively make my initial artworks, taking time, sometimes weeks, to build a more complete picture as I start to sense the beauty within the landscape. This means I am beginning to feel the landscape, a critical step in transferring feeling to the viewer, which as I said above "comes on another plane". Its an intense and critical part of the process, and can mean the difference between a successful outcome, or not.
I might also undertake botanic drawings and illustrations at this point -
...or more sweeping landscapes -
...and so the process continues until I feel happy with the end product.
All the while building up a body of work, a representation of a place, a Legacy or Land Biography, which could take the format of a large leather-bound journal, an individual saleable or commissioned artwork, or a public exhibition.
A Land Biography can take up to several years in the making, such as the "Liverpool Plains Land Biography".
Please note the artwork on this page is either not for sale, been sold, or part of a legacy collection that cannot be separated.