Drawing is for me an essential part of my creative process, and the starting point of many series. Given the prominence of the drawing in my practice in recent years, its influence has permeated other disciplines in my practice.

I only started to explore charcoal drawing in earnest in 2004. The first medium formats proved restrictive. But the London bombings in July 2005 changed the purpose and direction of my drawing. The terrorist act itself shocked me, as it did many Londoners. The grief and helplessness, the anxiety and the inevitable thoughts about mortality found an outlet with the main London paper double page spread of the photo ids of the 52 deceased. The unflattering images, caught unaware, with honest smiles prompted an emotional response, which demanded a larger format. From then on I found that for me at least, drawing in charcoal equals gesture, and as such it requires a large surface to manifest.

The Human Landscapes are based on an image from the press which demanded a large scale format. When exposed to the public, they involve and envelope the viewer with their sheer scale, becoming at times almost installations. With the Human Landscapes, it becomes apparent the exploration of the relationship between the macro and the micro-landscape. The original photo, a close up of a young man recovering from brain surgery, showed one side of the head that had been shaved off in order to extract the tumour, with growing stubble. All the hair growing in all different directions suggested at once a landscape of a forest of epic proportions.

After finishing the First Human Landscape, I needed to continue exploring the possibilities of very large format charcoal drawing. Working on such a big scale had specific effects, not only on the drawings that followed but also in my painting and sculpture. The sheer size liberated me and drawing became a matter of pure gestures and a very physical exercise. The Second Human Landscape is a continuation of the first drawing, in the sense that it moved even closer to the subject, with hope of gradually, in subsequent drawings, erase the references of the initial image.