A four week Artist Residency at the atelier of Wolfgang Simon in Almería, Spain.

In Almería the roads are dyed pink and purple with natural clay. Sunlight cuts light and dark through the caves and hollows which sit along the spines of half-mountains. The landscape is halved by light, yellow and black, orange and blue – torn by the sharp length of evening. An ochre dust settles over all objects living and still in the dryness of this desert region. 

My monotypes and drawings are a response to this uniquely pigmented part of Southern Spain. Dust is rolled into the very fabric of each print, pricking the surface of the paper with points of light where the ink cannot reach. The pigment absorbs instead into the soft ridges of torn paper, building glossy lines which traverse each page. 

The ink and paper I use is aged and softened, collected from the reservoir of a dead artist. Each image is generated from the carefully preserved materials left in the Montemero studio since the death of the resident artist Wolfgang Simon in 2017. As I work within the sanctuary of his studio my hands uncover and repurpose multitudes of inks, papers, chalks and pencils renewed from a postmortem stasis. My choice of colour and materials is guided generously by the presence of Simon’s creative warmth, and the wealth of his ability and vision leaves my work richer and bolder than it would have been had I felt alone in the studio.

My prints and drawings have been a retreat back into direct mark-making. Each print is pressed by hand, and details fall into shadow as they are translated from glass to paper. Figures trace mountain landscapes, stray dogs walk under blankets of stars and the slowness of a place is drawn out onto a page.