Looking at how other artists tackle a creative problem is always valuable and researching the drawing practice of Sophie Cunningham Dawe offered a way in to the walking drawing process. This project also developed from my ‘ drawing in the dark’ drawings, and continued my personal search to expand my visual language and knowledge of process within my drawing practice. I’d been exploring the idea of sensory drawings and also drawing moving objects but I wanted to find a way to integrate my drawing and walking to register through drawing the sensation of how I experienced the landscape when I walked, as opposed to making an observed drawing from a fixed point of view. I was also inspired by the artist John Virtue, who takes a regular weekly walk of some miles, along the same route filling sketchbooks with his calligraphic mark making. In her book ‘ I Live Here Now‘ she describes how after a relocation to Moscow, she made drawings of all that she encountered as she walked through the streets to familiarise herself with the new city. The discovery of Liza Dimbleby’s drawings were a first step in creating my own walking/drawing practice. I wanted to develop a way of drawing that captured my sensory and visual experiences as I moved through the landscape. This resource shares my process of making drawings whilst walking.

Walking as ifart drawings