Manchester Art Gallery and Deers

Earlier this week I visited Manchester Art Gallery to see Waqas Khan's current exhibition of intricate drawings. Inspired by both organic growth and Sufi Poetry which is characterised by its tolerance, humanism and peacefulness, Khan creates minimalist drawings consisting of minute detail and repetition of marks on often large scales. In order to complete the rather demanding task of one of these pieces, Khan often works through the night and claims to enter a trance-like state and describes it as leaving visible evidence of his contemplation on paper.

This exhibition was Khan's first solo exhibition in a public institution and it was fascinating to get up close to the pieces and see the vast amount of tiny mark making that can't really be caught the same in a photograph.

I decided to do some more experiments with pastels and graphite recently, trying out a looser and more minimal style than what I am used to. To work from I bought a deer decoration as I thought I could use it to find obscure angles to draw the deer from. I got the idea from Britta Jaschinski's blurred animal photography to try and draw the deer from angles and in a way that it was less obvious what it was at first while still remaining the animal shape.