Photograph #16

Danny Augustine’s Intuitive Ink Drawings And Doodlings

July 24, 2015 by moray mair

Danny Augustine‘s ink drawings take us on a trip through his unconscious, each picture an intuitive expression of his past and present, of memories and experiences, of external and internal impulses, of 24 hour news.

Using pen and ink Augustine begins with an empty mind and a sheet of paper. And what starts with a random splash soon grows into an exploration of his concerns, feelings and the forces that influence his life, his process determined by a lexicon of particular colours, forms and lines. His evolving drawings grow out of a random movement and into a more articulate expression of his being, an unknown landscape that he traverses, bringing us with him, each image born out of memories and experiences and 24 hour rolling news; the Syrian civil war, the earthquake in Nepal, the posturing of North Korea.

This automatic drawing harks back to Surrealism and artists such as Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí, Jean Arp and André Breton, who developed the form as a means of expressing the subconscious. And in these doodles, these watercolours, we get an insight into the mind of a young artist determined to synthesise the deluge of information that has become a hallmark of our age. Here’s what he has to say about his work:

" Each one of my pieces shall represent an emotional stepping stone within my life and find their own spot in the art world. For me, I never have a set idea when I begin my drawing. I allow my mind to drift off and as the drawing grows, I begin to filter in current events as well as my own personal experiences. This combination creates a very personal viewpoint of the world around me."