To live as an artist is a way of being in the world. A way of perceiving. A practice of paying attention. — Rick Rubin
That Sunday, we rented a Tesla and headed north to Gibbs Farm, a vast open-air sculpture park and farm in Kaipara Harbour.
We had purchased passes to see the exhibition six months earlier. The place is, apparently, quite well-known in Auckland’s art and culture scene. The commissioning of the artworks began 20 years ago and includes renowned artists such as Richard Serra and Anish Kapoor.
It is truly something worth seeing.
The man-made sculptures carve geometrical shapes in a natural landscape, which has also been altered. The juxtaposition of natural and man-made forms creates a unique visual dialogue that challenges our perceptions. This prompts the question: what is natural and what is designed? And, also, how does our perspective shape this understanding?
There is a bit of magical realism in this place.
During the long exhibition circuit, I took plenty of photos. Photography serves me as a way of taking visual notes. Later, at home, I revisit this collection of images with a curious and analytical eye, sketching and re-sketching them to uncover patterns, to reveal hidden realities.
For this series of drawings, I set myself a constraint: to use as few colours as possible while still unveiling the essence of the image.
I have always (unconsciously) worked in series, though it was only during the painting course with Matthew Browne that I became aware of this useful approach.
It turned out that three shades of green were enough to communicate the depth in distance of the landscape and the sinuous lines that were framing it. The repeated sketch iterations revealed what was important in the place: the contrast, almost the boundary, between the man-made sculptures integrated into the sinuous landscape. Instead of adding more colours, I found it more interesting to reveal the negative space with a lack of colour, as if these man-made shapes were cutting the vast green landscape.
A drawing does not need to depict an accurate, detailed, precise world; it should just reveal what we see. Or what we want to see. It’s almost like editing out reality. Bringing perception to some of its fundamentals: light, colour and shape.
This series of drawings reminded me of the power of applying the same constraints to different images to reveal a consistent outcome, almost like putting on a specific lens to see a particular thing.
Currently, I’m in a phase of experimentation, testing and applying various lenses to different places. There is something here in this set. This might be the beginning of different studies. It already triggered some ideas to explore next.
Certainly, I am in a creative spring season!
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Happy sketching!
Ana
The sculpture park looks amazing.