ActionSpace artist Matthew Berry joins artist Freya Gabie for a drawing partnership titled Magical Experiments. Over the course of six weeks, the two artists will explore the possibilities of drawing through mutual inspiration and experimenting with processes and techniques. The artists will share their experimental explorations, techniques and artwork produced across the project with artists in a final sharing event.
Hilma Af Klint & Piet Mondrian: Forms of Life exhibition visit
Visiting the Hilma Af Klint & Piet Mondrian: Forms of Life exhibition at Tate Modern, the two artists looked at how the two artists in the exhibition used colour and pattern in their paintings.
Informed by their exhibition visit the artists then experimented with colour wheel drawings with both artists working on the same piece.
Park Drawings
Drawing in the park, Matthew and Freya’s organic, free-form inspiration took them outside, responding to the patterns and textures found outside the studio. Matthew and Freya collected words each day before they start drawing to share ideas before each drawing starts. Using inks the artists developed techniques so that the inks bled into one another, which made the paper lose its opacity, creating a stained glass effect.
Large format books
Switching up the scale, the artists partnered on drawing in large format concertina handmade books. Matthew and Freya worked on this together, responding to the marks and forms each other had made, focusing on circles and lines, and creating a conversation through drawing. The concertina form allowed the artists to play with the format of these pieces, moving, folding closing and opening different parts of the drawing.
Further Experiments
Matthew and Freya have continued to explore the inky wheel paintings they have been collaborating on in the lead up to their workshop sharing event.
Workshop & Sharing Event
The project ended with Matthew running a workshop, sharing his technique for creating circular ink works. Freya and Matthew installed the work they had created over the project and invited visitors to view their collaborative drawings.
This project is supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation
