Hannah Farthing

A collision of imagination and experience, born out of a combination of lockdown and wanderlust...

The work I am presenting here explores themes of landscape, transience and wonder in the Scottish Highlands. Working predominantly in printmaking, drawing and painting, I have created a series of images that seek to evoke the wonder we all feel when gazing up at the night sky.

I spent the middle of my MA (the UK's winter lockdown) in my home county of Suffolk, one of the flattest parts of the UK. Although grounded and unable to travel the Scottish Highlands with my sketchbook as planned, I was fortunate to spend a number of long winter nights stargazing under clear, dark skies. The stars became quite literally a light of hope in the darkness, and I became particularly interested in the idea and effects of transient natural spaces like dusk, dawn and twilight. The following series of three images depict a lochan landscape under a sky full of stars; they are the combination of my Suffolk lockdown reality and Highlands dreams brought to life as reduction linocut prints, available to pre-order as limited edition original prints.

Drawing in Nature...

Over the past year I have developed a regular practice of drawing out in nature 'on location'. It has led to an even deeper connection with the landscape in my work, as the experience of being outside is tangible in the energy of the drawings I make. I have been especially interested in drawing under interesting weather and light conditions, observing their effects on the atmosphere of a place and how they can transform our experience of the everyday into a state of wonder.