Marion-Lea Jamieson

ISLAND TIME

I am a print-maker, painter and sculptor and have lived in Toronto, Geneva, Montreal, Bowen Island and Vancouver, but I now happily live in Qualicum Beach.  Here “island time” is a real phenomenon. It feels like there is more time and priorities for how to use it have shifted. It is more important to sit on the beach watching otters play than to be on time for an appointment; more important to cloud-gaze than to do chores. Here time is of longer duration but the days fly by. So I have been inspired by the slower pace of life and the natural beauty of this region to return to depicting landscapes. In the past, I have really enjoyed drawing and painting landscapes, but in the hectic life of the city, I lost touch with the natural world.

These landscapes are more detailed and labour-intensive ad might take all afternoon to make an almost unnoticeable addition. They apply drawing techniques that were used before images could be mass produced and artists carved images on wood, rolled ink on top and pressed the image onto paper. These artists were skilled at depicting the world using cross-hatched lines to convey light, shade, form and texture.

I studied these drawing techniques and for many years used them to create illustrations for editorial, advertising and book publishing. I sometimes carved my drawings into linoleum to make lino-cut prints, but due to the short time-lines in publishing, usually used scratchboard to create cross-hatched black & white drawings that translated well into print media. In my spare time and to sharpen my technique, I also drew landscapes, portraits and still-lives that were not for commercial applications.

 After moving to this Island, I have again taken up the challenge of creating detailed, labour-intensive line drawings with the cross-hatched drawing techniques on lino or scratchboard. But now I am digitizing the original drawings and printing them using current technology. So they are an interesting mix of the traditional style melded with hi tech. As it is neither old or new, this work is aiming at something timeless or outside of time.

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