MORE WORK.

Ink creatures on antique encyclopedia pages.

…the black bear was seen by Hearne swimming for hours with widely open mouth, thus catching, almost like a whale, insects in the water. .. 
Charles Darwin, The Origin Of The Species (1872)

Previously exhibited at the National Glass Centre as part of their 2008 summer exhibition, “Art From The Ocean”alongside artists such as Tue Greenfort, Maria Grazia Rosin and Dale Chihuly.

Excerpt from the exhibition catalogue

“Trying to draw or represent what we see in nature is one of the many ways in which we make sense of the complexities and mysteries of the natural world. From the time cave drawings man has captured the natural shape, proportions and positions of important anatomical features, or ‘characters’ as scientists call them.

In the days before photography, botanists, entomologists, ornithologists and zoologists were the conduits through which images of new species and lands were conveyed. They were the filters through which perceptions of alien cultures were distilled.

Much of Lawson’s pen and ink drawings describe a fascination with scientific illustration, the antiquarian imagination, naturalist expeditions and the blurring between the real and the obviously not true. Paying homage to the visual culture, aesthetics and traditions of the Victorians, he takes the draughtsmanship of the scientific illustrator and uses it as a pivot from which to move into the realm of interpretation and design.”