Fractured Landscapes

This series of small drawings were created during a three-month period of convalescence at the start of the year when I was immobilised at home with a leg in plaster after an accident. The small format meant I could work from bed and allowed me to draw my way through this challenging time. My leg was literally fractured and this got me thinking about all that was broken, divided, shattered or torn apart, be that societal divisions, our relationship with the natural world, family and friendship break ups and how these can be repaired, if at all.

These drawings were made as panoramas - seven individual small drawings which together create a whole, all seven required to create a complete landscape. The first landscape made during the first week of being bed-bound is made up of simple lines, a journey across the pages making use of the white space of the pages giving it a ‘lighter’ feel. As time progressed and I felt the confines of being house-bound I see now that they become darker and more complex reflecting both my mood and the reading I was doing, the realisation of the extent to which we are living in ‘fractured’ times.

I hadn’t planned out these drawings and had no idea how they would turn out, each one very much a drawing in its own right. The only constraint being that one drawing would ‘flow’ into another in a particular order. It was interesting to see that as time evolved so did the drawings and how each complete landscape is very different in mood.