Cromarty Residency

18 days into a residency in Cromarty, Easter Ross, I set myself an agenda to make drawings and then make paintings from them, without reference to other supporting material, such as photographs. Odd as it might seem, I have rarely made the connection between drawing from life outside and making paintings; generally tending to either paint outside or make work conceptually in the studio. The results are fledgling, but interesting. There is an act of faith in trusting the drawing when it comes to making a painting; accepting the reduced information set and the sense of having left something behind you needed but didn’t realise. This feeds back in to future drawings as experience. The thing I needed to change, was my expectations of what a painting should be and am working towards a more reductive outcome. Drawing feeds the memory with so much more than expected and the slippage between factual reality and invention that results is a satisfying process.