Decades apart
In 2010 I visited a D’Arcy Thompson themed exhibition Sketching the Universe in the Lamb Gallery, University of Dundee. In a display case I saw George Dutch Davidson’s beautiful Study for Orpheus, which I took notes on in my sketchbook. The drawing is for decorative panels for D’Arcy Thompson’s study at Dundee University – they were never realised.
In 2012/13 I revisited that sketchbook and made a series of works; etchings and a wood carving which derive from this drawing. I obtained a scan of it from the MacManus Gallery, the original is in pencil on aged paper so there is little contrast and scope to enlarge is non existent – if you increase it in scale all definition disappears.
This drawing was the starting point for two relief wood carvings decades apart. The main image in this blog is of Missing Leaves made in 2013 now in the collection of the University of Dundee, and below Rearrangement from November 2023.
