The House

The House is an illustration created using biro on canvas, later coloured with a watercolour wash and sealed.

Over the past few weeks my focus has been elsewhere — submitting songs to platforms, upgrading and integrating my websites, handling the admin side of being a creative person in a digital world. Necessary work. Important work.

But the urge to return to drawing — to building those imagined worlds from a blank surface — became too strong to ignore.

There was no concept.
No plan.
No sketch.

Just a small, inexpensive canvas bought with the simple intention of working differently — to move from paper to canvas and allow the piece to exist as a finished object from the start.

When I begin with nothing, certain forms almost always emerge: houses, derelict buildings, nature reclaiming structures, crossroads, bridges, pathways dividing one side from another. Perhaps it is familiarity. The more you draw something, the more instinctive it becomes. But the symbolism of crossings and contrasts seems to surface naturally, without conscious instruction.

The first marks are always the hardest. There is a tension in touching a blank surface. But once lines begin to gather, once texture starts to form, there is an extraordinary shift — something once empty begins to assert its own presence.

I’m often asked how I work with a simple biro, mark by mark, line by line.

The honest answer is: I don’t really know.

There is no underdrawing. No mapped-out plan. Each line exists only moments before it is made. There are nerves — the awareness that you could “get it wrong.” But I remind myself that it is only marks building upon marks. The image grows through accumulation.

There are no strict rules. Texture develops instinctively. As the scene evolves, the mind adjusts. When you become comfortable with your tools and visual language, instinct quietly takes over.

While I have always loved the starkness of black and white — the purity of tone and contrast — it was colour that allowed this piece to breathe. The wash gave depth. It allowed individual elements to step forward.

The House is a single piece for now. Whether it becomes a series remains to be seen.

What excites me most is the shift to canvas. It changes the relationship with the work. Whether I continue in this direction will, realistically, depend on resources — materials cost money, and practical life always comes first.

Still, this piece marks a return.

And perhaps the beginning of something new.

If it resonates with you, I’d love to know.