A Walk Through the Grounds

Drawing Artist-in-Residence, Cheeseburn Sculpture Gardens, 2019–2020

A Walk Through the Grounds emerged from a year-long residency at Cheeseburn Sculpture Gardens, funded by Newcastle University Challenge Labs in collaboration with Philippa Carter (Geography). The project explored the question of what makes a place, considering the physical, social and emotional relationships that shape our experience of landscape.

As the first drawing artist-in-residence at Cheeseburn, I explored drawing as an embodied, site-responsive practice. Through walking, repetition and duration, drawing became a way of engaging with the grounds rather than simply representing them.

The work was informed by John Dobson’s architectural plans for Cheeseburn House (1813) and Joanna Riddell’s ongoing restoration of the house and gardens. Over ten months, large-format charcoal and ink drawings were buried at different locations across the estate. Exposed to weather, soil and human intervention, the works were gradually altered, eroded and partially dispersed by forces beyond my control.

The resulting drawings became collaborations between artist, site, material and time. Rather than fixed objects, they became records of encounter, shaped by the processes of the landscape in which they were placed