Walking daily on habitual routes during COVID lockdowns helped me see how entangled my experience of landscape is with how I think, and with my state of mind.
The Path series of charcoal drawings explored this relationship. As I walked, I collected sounds, impressions and ideas. Walking the same paths created repetition and a sense of familiarity. Paying attention to the small changes layered memories and emotions into each location.
I created a process that mirrored this experience. I made repeated drawings, following unexpected results where they led and paying attention to my responses as I worked. The drawings became half remembered and half imagined. Each time I drew, and now each time I look at the light illuminated spaces along The Path, I’m drawn into the same state of solace and relaxed curiosity these walks gave me.
Liz Cotgreave is interested in what the natural world means to us and the emotions it evokes. She works experimentally and iteratively, in charcoal and print, following unexpected results and paying attention to what they reveal. This open process helps her understand what captured her attention about a place, a moment or an experience, and to explore its emotional resonance.