Bec Garland
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Bec Garland Manchester based Fine Artist Bec Garland’s drawing pieces are detailed, lyrical and well observed. In her series of pen and ink drawings of buildings in Manchester she has taken fragments of both significant and anonymous buildings and represented their key features in delicate black pen drawings. BackgroundBec was born in Manchester in 1975 and lived north of the city until a move to Sheffield to pursue a BA in Fine Art. Whilst in Sheffield Bec worked for Sheffied Galleries and Museums Trust as a freelance arts educator before moving to France for a season and then returning to Manchester. Bec worked as a teacher and course leader before setting up freelance and working on a variety of education projects. In 2005 Bec moved to Manchester City Centre and began to concentrate on her artistic practice developing an inspiring and innovative body of work ranging from pen and ink representational illustrations to embroidered badges,Recent exhibition have included ‘Ruinous Recollections’ in June 2008, a group show where she exhibited photo-drawings based on the biography of Manchester reformer Friedrich Engels, and her MA show at the Holden Gallery, Manchester Metropolitan University in late 2007. InspirationBec’s inspiration is drawn from a range of sources. Her photographic practice is instrumental for research and composition as well as enabling recording of detail from which to draw from. Her range of subject matter is varied from drawings of buildings in Manchester, to animals, to photographic performance. All her work draws on notions of narrative and often her pieces involve some form of characterisation.The diverse and unique architecture of Manchester is an huge inspiration to Bec as is the natural world. The contrast of these two different areas presents richly inspiring ground. She often draws on language and the notions of narrative in her work, from embroidered images with text to illustrations which incorporate the written word. Bec has always been engaged with artists practice and is inspired by photographers, illustrators, painters, writers alike. Early favourite artists were Andrew Wyeth and Hokusai and recent contemporary favourites include photographer Sam Taylor Wood and illustrator Neal Murren. Books, films and plays also a source of creative input and often Bec draws upon a range of creative practices to inspire her work. To paper"I like to explore the city and see which buildings hold special character or details which attract me in some way. There are many and I like to photograph a range of buildings and then work with photographs which hold a compositional quality I feel will be effective for a drawing pieceI tend to sketch out directly in pen and complete the drawing in one sitting. It’s important for me to get into a creative space where the drawing just happens. My aim is to produce an effective representation through observation, detail and concentration." |