drawings
Note:
We (Alice and Sarah) met in Oxford after I had been working in a rain forest in Hawai'i, and I had been forced to cancel my project and move indoors by torrential, climate change storms that threatened muddy landslides. I found myself sheltering in a local aquarium so I moved in there to continue working. And there I met an octopus. I had been drawing water on the mountainside, before being driven indoors by the water and then I met a creature of the sea, so I watched him and drew him for days, and then wrote about the experience as a seedling idea I have for a book that I would like to create, exploring the creative processes of drawing through journeys and encounters with other species.... Alice saw both the water and octopus drawings and we had conversations around both. The Hawaii drawings...were made at the coast on dry days when the aquarium was closed, and I couldn't be with the octopus, yet it was still too dangerous to be up the mountain.
These drawings (above) were made in pocket notebooks with a grey fine-liner pen. I watch for a clear motion that the water repeats, and then try to emulate and express it, without holding it still.
I have loved to draw since I could first grasp a crayon. It enables me to think, or to feel more clearly where I am. It can be a form of touch and breathing that helps me to see. I look for water to draw when I am travelling. An hour spent very close to a stream, a river, or the sea, helps me to feel more centred and present. The water reminds me of how fleeting I am.
Sarah Simblet is an artist and the author of four books on drawing, anatomy, botany, and forestry. She lives in West Oxfordshire, UK.