Matti, 'Portraits of Trees', 2021. Pen on canvas paper. Image courtesy: the artist.

Artist statement

The companion works in ‘Portraits of Trees’ fuse traditional  drawing materials with interference techniques that prevent figuration anxiety. I have been developing my Long Drawing system for the past six months, deliberately combining blind contour, multiple pens, and minimum time limits with inadvertent smudging to disconnect from the disconcerting way my hand doesn’t draw what I see. This has allowed me to explore the slippage between representation and abstraction in landscape art.

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