Why drawing in particular?
I believe that Drawing is an act from the soul. It seems to me that it comes from a sort of primitive place within. It feels instinctual. It allows my mind to find a kind of rest through the concentration it requires. When drawing, the hand and eye and inner vision is finding a rhythm through a sort of communion.
Although there is a very alive and active working dynamic going on, with an outward and inward tide receiving and suggesting, there is often at the same time a wonderful sense of play. The atmosphere created when drawing can be very satisfying. There’s a sort of peace in it.
Even if I’m frustrated that I’m not getting something quite right with the drawing, it is still grounding and provides a home within that gives me comfort. Just knowing that this place exists and can be conjured really matters to me.
How or why I choose Drawing for a subject depends on how my instinct responds to what I’m seeing.
Drawing can give me a helping hand towards understanding the planes and shapes, the shadows or the colour or light of a subject.
Drawing is a wonderful thing. A delicate, lightly applied line or a determined fearlessly driven mark; well, they all get to have their say at one point or another. Sometimes vying off each other. Sometimes I’ll choose one of these modes alone for an entire drawing. I might look at a subject and want to only think about it from a simplified level. I’ll make a line drawing without being preoccupied with its tonal values, shadows, colour variations or marks and patterns.
My eye might effortlessly and quite naturally attune to the form. For example, If I’m concerned with the most obvious shape of a subject, I will regulate my focus of attention on one aspect of the object – the line. Drawing here seems like the natural response.
Sometimes I will choose drawing as a sort of investigative tool, to scratch around and try to get to grips and understand the space. Drawing helps me to understand depth and contour by having to search for it with a curious eye, and then find it in my mind. I draw to describe and redefine my findings.
If I respond to a subject with an excitement around colour and / or tonal value, I might feel that lively and racy lines in the drawing feels right, or I’l use the weight of a heavy mark that can feel exciting and invigorating and sometimes feel like it takes on a life of its own. The speed I make marks matters. My graphite on paper drawing, “ Tree Study ” speaks a bit of this. As I made the drawing, I found myself almost being taken over by a sort of charge. This can be seen in the drawing with the energetically, veiny growth of lines for the branches.
Hockney said “ Drawing is rather like playing chess: your mind races ahead of the moves that you eventually make”
Some of my pastel drawings are an example of this. I recently made a pastel self – portrait where I had an intuitively quick paced drawing response. I found myself drawing with colour in an experimental way and not over thinking or getting too bogged down in choosing which colour to use. An enjoyable exercise and one that certainly reminds me that I can enjoy a similar experience with my painting. Drawing can be really helpful for making paintings.
I find that when the drawing begins, something other than intellect is ignited.
“ To know what you’re going to draw, you have to begin drawing…when I find myself facing a blank page, that’s always going through my head. What I capture in spite of myself interests me more than my own ideas. “ Picasso
Are there themes or ideas you investigate through your work?
Senses of time and change. Personal relationships. Emotional responses or felt sense experiences. Growth, ageing, and decay which is something that has always concerned my mind from as long as I can remember. I made a large textile piece called “ Myself In Decay “ which was a response to my own fears of ageing. I chose white bed linen as a statement of innocence. I made a self – portrait head study using the sheets and marked them as though they were soiled bed stains.
I’m also interested in ideas of movement and light, mark making, colour, space, sense of loss.
Recently I find myself interested by themes of interplay within the mind and the psycho-spiritual and how I might go about making work to describe thoughts and experiences of this.
Are you working towards an exhibition?
An exhibition soon enough I hope.. I’m currently trying to find a suitable studio space. If anyone can help me find a studio ?.. please do get in touch via email: una_price@icloud.com
If you would like to see more of Una Price’s work go to Una Price Artist on Instagram – you can find the link below
