Mark Davies

This series of images is an abstract exploration and exploitation of the qualities of light when refracted through various every day drinking glasses. ‘Sketching with light’ evolved from the observations of incidental light interactions that are encountered every day from the patterns through blinds and the specular light patterns cast through water. The decision to force these interactions within a studio setting was made to control the light fall onto the surfaces more commonly used for the creation of sketches (paper and canvas), capturing these images on those surfaces via photography as if they had been drawn by the light itself. The light refractions created through glass takes on the fluidity hat creates these abstracted images; this distortion entices the viewer to engage with the works and question what they are seeing allowing them to develop their own conclusions. Images in this series at times appear to create ethereal and ghostly landscapes as well as the delicate and intricacies more akin to that of medical X-rays. ‘Refracted: Sketching with light’ takes inspiration from the early Vortograph works by Alvin Langdon Coburn as well as the contemporary light and shadow sculptures created by Barbara Kasten.