Investigating Brookwood Cemetery

Photograph has been a passion of mine since I happened upon studying Photography A-Level at College. So, when I went to Brookwood cemetery, and the weather wasn't particularly conducive to sitting and drawing from observation (snowing), I took lots of photos.

Textures have been my key focus in photography and my artwork previously, so I naturally gravitated toward focusing on textures at Brookwood. I also chose to use charcoal as a way of creating quick gestural drawings, which showed the contrast between the rigid lines of the grave stones/crosses and the natural branches and trees surrounding them which were more rough sketches.

I was mainly interesting in drawing the graves which looked like they were being taken over by nature, or taken back to nature. The graves which seemed like they had been forgotten and not loved anymore were more intriguing to draw because of the textures and the dramatic atmosphere of the location. I did a couple of drawings using pen and pencils to see if this affected the mood. It seems like those drawings are less gestural or exciting to look at because there aren't any layers to them compared to the shading and tone of the charcoal drawings.

Inspired by research into colour schemes in previous project, I also noted the colour palette of a particular gravestone which was constructed from bright glass mosaics. Although not on the theme of the rest of my collected imagery, this was a really interesting piece of art within the grey stone slabs of the other grave sites.