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From Yesnaby

Artist: Clark, Samantha · b. 1967

From Yesnaby

Since moving to Orkney in 2016, my work has become increasingly influenced by the dynamic movement of weather and sea, particularly the endless…

Since moving to Orkney in 2016, my work has become increasingly influenced by the dynamic movement of weather and sea, particularly the endless movements of water in, around and through land, sea and sky. In counterpoint to this quick mutability, my drawing process
is slow and meditative, a patient accretion of simple marks that results in intricate forms resembling sea foam, clouds, mists, rock sediments or mollusc shells. Gathering time and making it visible in this way, the drawing records the duration of its own making, and invites a contemplative response from the viewer.

With regard to the present work, it stems from the artist's original proposal in applying to the William Littlejohn Award where she wrote; "I have been working in a series of drawings using gesso, gouache and pigment ink. In these a delicate reticulation of simple marks; lines, circles, dots, form complex, lace-like layers over a ground of
softly textural washes. I am excited by the potential of this way of working and would like to pursue this on a larger scale.

At the heart of this project is a meditation on water and time. Water’s quick flow and changeability seem an apt metaphor for time’s passage, and yet its ancientness and ubiquity also seem eternal. Similarly, time is also a paradoxical phenomenon: our day to day conception of it bears little resemblance to the insights offered by modern physics.

Drawing takes time, in the moment of the hand’s movement, and holds it still. The slow, accretive method of mark-making I employ makes each drawing a receptacle of time, gathering up these moments so they are visible in a single instant, and yet showing the timespan of the drawing’s own making.

Most of my current works are fairly modestly sized, but I would like to try working on a larger (and longer!) scale, to fill the viewer’s field of vision with shimmering layers of fine, reticulated meshes, so the drawings become like looking into the depths of water through a sparkling surface, or up into a deep sky through veils of cloud and mist.

The support of the William Littlejohn award would buy me some of this time, and allow me to share the results with a wide audience through the RSA."

© The Artist