DRAWINGS: The built environment

I have always been drawn to buildings and places in a state of flux. My work is partly informed by places I’ve visited in the course of my work as a conservator as well as places encountered through travel. Alongside familiar locations such as the British Museum in London, and the Coliseum in Rome, I’ve used my drawings to explore more unusual locations such as a derelict building in East Kent that housed military prisoners in World War One. It is now little more than a cow-shed, but the prison cells, complete with graffiti of the Great War, still exist. In 2004, I was the only artist allowed on site after a fire devastated Ramsgate Library. I was able to document the destruction, capturing the the interior of the building, exposed to the elements and daylight, and cut by distorted shapes and exposed girders. I created a series of drawings picking out the remaining details and striking light patterns in the building’s shell.