Views from a window...

Every opportunity during waking hours, no matter where one finds oneself, is an occasion for looking and seeing, and for drawing. This is a drawing I made 22 years ago from my study window, of a slice of my back yard in wintertime. It is pencil, ink and watercolour. The outlook was familiar, one I saw every day, and yet one which provided constant surprises. On this particular day, the sun shone onto the derelicted fence and shrubbery which provided a rich tracery that contrasted with the simple slice of interior. The cold, watery orange of the sunlight showed a promise of spring renewal and growth.

At this time of my life I spent a lot of my time looking out windows. Car windows on the way to work, the windows at work, the windows from my house. It seemed as if views from windows were a constant condition and limit to what I saw of the world.

A window is an aperture from an interior world to an exterior one. There is a long tradition in painting, of combining interior with exterior worlds. Inside and outside; safety, comfort and familiarity of the domestic sphere and the beckoning lure of adventure in the outside world; control and loss of control.

This drawing is made from a friend's studio window a couple of years ago. What was most amazing is to sit inside a chaotic interior, full of bits and pieces of her collections, and observe how her uncontrolled interior spilled into the external lanscape - one with its own regulated environment arranged along natural organizational principles.

It is a privilege to be allowed into another person's personal space, to look outside their window from inside their specific comfort zone.

This simple drawing, in pencil, is my attempt to come to grips in being inside a chaotic interior environment, my effort to find an equilibrium for myself. The act of drawing helped in this quest.