The Distance Narrows
The Distance Narrows Charcoal on Paper 60cm x 100cm There is a lot of space in Namibia. So much space that it can be difficult to describe. The landscape stretches away beneath enormous skies, and the animals can seem almost insignificant within it. When I made this drawing, I wanted to hold on to that feeling. But I didn't want to draw the landscape. Instead, I wanted to create it through the space around the animals. I deliberately allowed large areas of the paper to remain empty. Or perhaps empty isn't quite the right word. The space is the landscape. It is the sky. The distance. The vastness of the Namib-Naukluft. The zebras occupy only a small part of it, and yet their presence changes everything. I found myself thinking about how differently we experience distance when we are standing in a landscape like this. Something can be physically close and still feel impossibly far away. A herd can be visible across a valley, yet the space between us is enormous. And then, someti...