Drawings and Monotypes... Iona, Italy....Shetland

The most recent works, at the top of the page, were begun during my residency on Shetland where I experienced a deep and profound inner change, which I owe to being on those beautiful Islands and to a certain realisation about aspects of my early life, brought to light by a dream.

I consider making monotypes and to a certain extent my way of working with watercolours, to be drawing. I usually use my left hand and I often work  with my eyes closed. I tune into my body, and I work slowly, waiting until I feel certain impulse in my body, which offer a kind of reassurance, before I release my hands to draw. Many of the drawings below were made as I 'became the hollow bone', with my eyes closed, listening to Bach's Little Organ Book, in a cold barn - or bothy- at Lagandorain (Gaelic for hollow of the otter), on the Isle of Iona. Some were made from drawings I made in my sketchbook  in St Oran's Chapel on Iona; standing in seawater in lochs on Lewis or Barra; or in a little museum in Visso, standing rapt with wonder before wooden painted Madonnas. I make my monotypes on Gampi paper, bible paper, or Chinese calligraphy paper. I also like to use inks made from plants, peat, and earth I gather from where I happen to be walking.