Drawing has become the main focus of my art lately. It’s quick (I only need a 10 minute window frame to grab my sketchbook and pen and begin or continue a drawing), it’s clean and it’s portable. I know clean wouldn’t gel well with most artist’s because I suppose that’s half the fun, acquiring materials and inspiration and channelling the creative flow into a solid tangible art work that along the way may be a bit messy. But I’m questioning this mess and use of materials lately (well I suppose it’s always been at the back of my mind but it’s come forward of late). It’s an irony that is amusing in a way. Most artist’s would like to think of themselves as bohemian, eccentric, a free spirit even. Not a huge consumer or a huge creator of waste and especially not another cog in the economic wheel. And with so many artist’s out there, regardless of whether it’s a career or a hobby, it must be contributing significantly to the waste in our world. I don’t want to stop creating but I’m going to try to minimise the waste and the consuming. Buying in bulk is not always a good idea I’ve discovered. I have a stockpile of lino, paper and I’m gradually getting through the paint. But art practices change and evolve and where once I was really keen to go down the printmaking track I’m not so much anymore. So a stockpile of lino is pretty much useless unless I force myself to use it. Which I probably will. And I’m planning on painting over the top of any canvases I’m not satisfied with. But the regular trips to that fave artist haunt Eckersley’s is a thing of the past. Ahhh! The waste dilemma. I’ve been thinking lately creating a beautiful garden or learning a musical instrument (both things I do with varying degrees of success, though I suppose that’s goes the same for my art) are perhaps a more environmentally favourable way to release creative tension.
Anyway here are a few of my recent line drawings.
Kerri Smith Artist 