Statement

My work primarily involves producing hyperrealist graphite pencil drawings, on paper, depicting old school class photographs, of anonymous children. Previously these had been exclusively sourced from local newspapers- based in Fife, Scotland. More recently though I have been sourcing images from books, postcards, photographs bought on e-bay and particularly from google image searches.

It's a social documentation of past fashions and personalities which provides much of the allure: in particular the naive charm and androgyny of some of the children, which skirts between the dark, sinister, vaguely disturbing and uneasy- yet quirky and amusing.

The process of production is intrinsically and inescapably linked to the finished piece. Increasingly, my work requires a high degree of scrutiny: both in terms of the physical minuteness and detail. In essence, it is an obsession with creating a convincing illusion, which can beguile the viewer. It is this relationship between the drawing and the viewer which I seek to manipulate.