My name is Drew Murphy. I’m a local visual artist working in charcoal and pastels. My approach involves using the rich mark making potential of charcoal to communicate ideas and create intense visual narratives. Moving between realism and abstraction, I like to build visual associations on the paper surface. My drawings mix human and representational forms in abstract settings to create compositions that imply stories and bring about sensations of thinking and feeling.
Charcoal is a powerful medium for creating a visual experience. I enjoy the directness and immediacy it brings to the drawing process. The way charcoal behaves on the paper surface allows for experimentation and auditioning ideas on the go. Exploiting this fluidity, I move between representation and abstraction, and play with associations to create intense visual experiences.
