Blog by Emily Hughes
For me the start of every new project begins with a sketchbook and a camera. My work is predominantly focused on Penmaenmawr quarry. With three generations of my family having worked at the site I am never short of stories that inspire, But I always feel a need to immerse myself in the landscape to develop my own feelings towards its industrial past and present.
Quarry Sett Houses
With the excitement of new projects ahead I make the journey from the village up into the quarry site. As the site is a working quarry I have been fortunate enough to receive permission over the years to photograph the changing landscape.
Quarry Site
I try not to plan too much in advance before I visit the site because inevitably my attention shifts around from place to place as there is so much to take in. I first assess the site as a whole before I begin to break it down into separate more manageable areas. I begin by exploring the textures, colours and shapes. I have recently been interested in repeated patterns that seem to crop up in leftover disused machinery and the carved out landscape. Once I have captured many images I look at the possibly overlooked elements of the quarry, like discarded work materials and ruins long forgotten.
Quarry Wires
When returning back to the studio after my site visits I will look back at the photographs in order to inspire some works in my sketchbook. Whilst on an MA course I developed a real love for using photographs within my sketchbook. I would cut into them, paint and draw on top of the pieces, almost manipulating them to tell a different story.
Sketchbbook Cyanotype and photographs
Sketchbook photography and posca pen overdrawing
A lot of the pages you see here represent fragmented memories of the Quarry site. I wanted to use my current imagery but distort and merge them with offcuts of old artworks and earlier photography. In doing this I felt like I was unearthing past stories I had been told and blending them with what I was seeing in front of me in the present.
Sketchbook photography and drawing
Sketchbook printed acetate, photograph and reused old artwork