The messiness & the need to use solvent based aerosol fixatives made me abandon charcoal very early on in my artist journey.
However many years later I discovered the artist Kate Boucher at West Dean College and her fabulous charcoal artwork inspired me to have another go.
Shortly after discovering Kates work I was able to go along to an experimental charcoal workshop run by York artist Phil Reynolds & I was hooked!
Kates inspirational book 'Drawing with Charcoal' is helping me discover many different ways of working with charcoal.
I use many different types, including pieces found near a charcoal kiln in local woods, but particularly love the feel of mark making with willow charcoal.
Having discovered that charcoal can be fixed with skimmed milk, fixing my drawings is now a very easy & safe process.
Charcoal remains a messy way of working but I find it a good way of exploring new ideas which feed into my other creative practices.
