The romantic sublime in nature is a theme I frequent; our place in the grand scheme of things, connection to nature, the power of natural forces.
I delight in exploring new processes and materials. Working from photographs and sketches made while walking, as a starting point, I create large-scale charcoal drawings, paintings and etchings, which evolve in the making.
I am interested in that vacillation between entering the pictorial space of a painting or drawing, and surface or marks bringing you back. My paintings become partly abstracted, as mark-making and the object produced are as important as the image inside.
2024
Maggie Hargreaves
Artist Statement
Title ‘Quarry Shift’, Charcoal and acrylic ink on paper, 100x45cm framed. Sitting quiet, sketching the monolithic old quarry above Wirksworth, feeling small, I become part of the resurgence of life; birds twittering and flitting, catkins, plants, mosses, buzzards mewling overhead. The old workplace shifting, nature regaining its place.
Title ‘High up on wild boar fell’, acrylic , 60x80cm framed. Mallerstang in Cumbria is wild and there was dramatic weather that day’s long walk. Distant clear skies were overshadowed here with the dark threat of rain and snipe stood motionless as I watched, then blended into the textures of the land.