GOUACHE DRAWINGS

Recently I’ve been working on a group of gouache drawings on paper, made quickly and directly from instinct and memory.

These works sit at a particular moment in my practice, just before a shift. Having just returned from a residency in Portugal where some of these drawings were made, I am about to move studios to develop larger, experimental work for an installation project that will push this language further. This group feels like the point of departure.

The drawings are driven by line - used as a way of holding weight, pressure and emotion. I’ve been working faster, allowing less time for correction, which brings a greater sense of risk and immediacy into the work. Figures emerge through exaggerated gesture, often unstable, stretched or compressed, hovering between control and collapse.

There’s a tension I’m interested in - between something theatrical or performative, and something more internal, almost involuntary. At times the figures feel composed, even stylised; at others they seem to slip out of that control.

Colour is used simply but deliberately - sometimes as surface, sometimes as an emotional charge within the image.

Each drawing is unique. This is a small, focused release, offered ahead of the studio move. The works are available directly here before being released more widely.