Naturespace

Naturespace online gallery features nature inspired art submitted by people of all ages living in areas of conflict, displaced by conflict, or seeking respite from illness and life’s adversities. Artist and Drawing for the Planet (DftP) Founder Jane Lee McCracken invites you to find mind sanctuary by connecting with nature through drawing and art. 

Scroll down to Gallery to see a selection of participant’s art, and how to submit. Search #dftpnature on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to see the complete gallery. To translate this text please visit: translate.google.co.uk/

Above: 'Street Flowers April - May 2020' limited publication, drawing on carton by Artist, Chloe Briggs 

ABOUT

Naturespace seeks to provide an opportunity to escape through art. Regardless of what materials you have to hand, we can all find peace through creativity.

Nature surrounds all of us from a tiny spider crawling across the ground to entire forests. Not only can we admire nature’s awe-inspiring beauty in its many forms, we can also draw strength and hope from nature's resilience to overcome adversity. Connecting with nature and finding a creative sanctuary for your mind, can make the world feel a better place.  

WHAT TO CREATE

Naturespace is open to children and adults in need of sanctuary from everyday life to create drawings and art of nature. 

  • Creations can be inspired by nature in your immediate surroundings, or from images or memories of special places and could include plants, fungi, wildlife, landscapes or even the elements such as clouds, water, or weather.
  • Use any media or surface to hand, for example, you can draw with your fingers in dust, with objects such as string, or natural materials as well as conventional mediums. Your drawings can be abstract or expressive, or realistic.
  • As nature also creates its own drawings such as birdsong etched through the air, abstract lines with grass, or ice patterns on water, you can capture nature's visual and sound drawings in photographs, videos or recordings. 

  • If you can't see nature where you are, make art that expresses how nature makes you feel. Think about things like when the wind blows on your face, when you touch grass with your hands, smell flowers or hear birdsong.when you touch grass with your hands, smell flowers or hear birdsong.

        Frost drawings on grass Jane Lee McCracken

        HOW TO SUBMIT

        If you have found sanctuary through nature and art and would like to share your creations, please use the hashtag #dftpnature and tag us on social media, where Jane may feature your art in Gallery below or on our platforms here:

        INSPIRATION

        Top: Magdalenian cave drawings,Les Combarelles, 'Young Hare' 1502 Albrecht Durer, 'A Deluge' c1517-18 Leonardo da Vinci; Bottom: 'The Great Wave off Kanagawa' 1831 Hokusai;  'All The Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins' 2016 Yayoi Kusama (image credit: Victoria Miro), 'Waterfall Line' 2000 Richard Long (image credit: Tate)

        For millennia, artists have been inspired by the natural world. Artist, Chloe Briggs, Founder of Drawing is Free draws street flowers with paint, charcoal, stitching and collage on various surfaces, including cartons (top image). Jane Lee McCracken explores the theme of loss to animals, humans and the environment generated by human destruction and creates Biro drawings and artworks often featuring endangered species.

         

        Shh, it's a Tiger! (detail) 2013 Biro drawing, Jane Lee McCrackeng endangered species.

        "Through life's ups and downs drawing has been my constant friend. The combination of immersing myself in the sights and sounds of the natural world and drawing, transports my mind from everyday life and provides a haven where I can be myself. I hope by creating Naturespace it will help others in need of mind sanctuary find some peace through nature and art.” Jane Lee McCracken

        This gallery is dedicated to humans, animals and the environment affected by conflict and adversity. 

        GALLERY

        Welcome to Naturespace! To celebrate the launch of this online gallery on 29 March 2022, and to provide further inspiration, Jane has included a selection of nature inspired artworks with kind permission of the artists she approached. She looks forward to featuring a selection of artworks by children and adults who have found mind sanctuary as the gallery grows.

        to

        Street Flowers April - May 2020 limited publication, drawing on carton, Chloe Briggs (with kind permission from Chloe, Artist and Founder of Drawing is Free. View Chloe's work on Instagram here: @drawingisfree_org

         

        Assemblages, flowers and plastic 2018, Jenny Purrett (with kind permission from Jenny, North East based artist). View Jenny's art here:  jennypurrett.co.uk  

         

        Soot drawing of burnt tulip 2022, Jenny Purrett (with kind permission from Jenny, North East based artist). View Jenny's art here:  jennypurrett.co.uk  

         

         

         

        Seeds series 03 2021/22 Silk thread on cotton and mother of pearl object, Esen Kaya (with kind permission from Esen, Artist, and Curator at the Aga Khan Centre Gallery. View Esen's art on Instagram here: @esenkayaart

         

        Dear Nightingale and Dear Hoopoe 2021 ceramic tile diptych featuring original blue Biro drawings, Jane Lee McCracken. Created for the Making Paradise: Exploring the concept of Eden through Art & Islamic Garden Design exhibition, Aga Khan Centre Gallery, London

         

          

        Above: The Song of the Wren 2017; left: Airs, Phrases and Notes in Neon: The Language of Birds 2021; right: A Dawn Chorus: Out of the Darkness 2021, Mike Collier (with kind permission of Mike, lecturer, writer, curator and artist. View Mike's art here: mikecollier.co.uk

         

        Dawn Chorus Day 2021 Jack Lowe (with kind permission from Jack, photographer and Founder of the Lifeboat Station Project. View Jack's work here: lifeboatstationproject.com

         

        Yard 2020 brasso, calamine lotion, floor polish and watercolour drawing, Christine Egan-Fowler (with kind permission from Christine, Artist Teacher at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle and DftP Advisor)

         

        Untitled 2013 watercolour, paper, tree bark on board, Lucy Speed (with kind permission from Lucy, North East based artist)  

         

        Fallen Lichen 2011, 140 x140cm, watercolour on paper, Jenny Purrett (with kind permission from Jenny, North East based artist). View Jenny's art here:  jennypurrett.co.uk

          Listen With Mother 2017 acrylic and emulsion on canvas, Nick Holmes (with kind permission from Nick, Herefordshire based artist. View Nick's art here: www.nickholmesart.co.uk).

         

        Birch Bark 2020 Jill Brown (with kind permission from Jill)

         

        Shot Paper 2012, lead shot on cartridge paper, Jenny Purrett, Touching with the Eyes, solo exhibition, Custom's House (with kind permission from Jenny, North East based artist). "I do what I do in response to the place I find myself. I walk. I stop. I look. I see. I hear. I smell. I touch. The work is a result of these experiences. I like to draw: I find edges, notice surface, watch the light.I look, and look again. I make marks over and over finding something new each time. I like to collect: it makes me notice the small things. I like to arrange them, and then rearrange. I celebrate their beauty, their intricacy, their individuality. I like to play with materials, see what we can do together, how we might transform each other. Drawing, collecting, making: these are the interwoven strands connecting me to the landscape; rooting me in place and time." View Jenny's art here:  jennypurrett.co.uk

         

        Glass and Copper Lines; Sea Glass, Rock and Porcelain 2017, Jenny Purrett (with kind permission from Jenny, North East based artist). View Jenny's art here:  jennypurrett.co.uk

         

        Mark making works Graham Patterson: mark making devices made from objects retrieved from the North-Northumberland coastline. Cast-iron, sash and case weight. Suspended via twine with re-fillable ink marker attached. Sprayed marks achieved by the momentum of the spinning weight. Graphite pencil inserted into suspended rotating shoreline plastic, formerly a grass cutting roller. Rotating offers infinite variations of looping, coiled marks. The tension of the suspended object, elasticity of monofilament, sharpness of pencil and force of rotations are all determining factors in how the marks are transcribed (with kind permission from Graham, North East based artist. View Graham's art on Instagram here: www.instagram.com/g.p.7.6).

         

         

         

         

        Assemblages of sea plastics Graham Patterson: Many of the found plastics had already been re-purposed by fishermen in the construction of lobster pots. Generations ago there would have been a natural inclination to adapt found materials. This is an ethos that fits with Graham's art practice as well as acknowledging his paternal lineage (with kind permission from Graham, North East based artist. View Graham's art on Instagram here: www.instagram.com/g.p.7.6).

         

        Disaster Series (SOS) 2018 acrylic and emulsion on canvas, Nick Holmes (with kind permission from Nick, Herefordshire based artist. View Nick's art here: www.nickholmesart.co.uk). 

         

        Dead Seas 2020 acrylic and emulsion on canvas, Nick Holmes (with kind permission from Nick, Herefordshire based artist. View Nick's art here: www.nickholmesart.co.uk).

         

        Fossicking on the rocks and pools at Holywell 2022 submitted by Liz Purkis

         

        Screenshots of shadow theatre artwork displayed at Zaratan - Arte Contemporânea 2022, submitted by Angela Visser