Caves II

'For a year or so after I went, with a cave leader, down some of the most spectacular pot holes in the Yorkshire Dales. He would guide me to a safe cavern or ledge, clip me into ropes and safety gear and leave me to draw for an hour or so. In the notebook I would do my best to catch the facts of the place- often very difficult to understand- and try to communicate the sheer "otherness" of being out of ones natural environment, I imagine it's like outer space or undersea in that we are poorly adapted to the conditions and even a small mistake could be fateful- its a feeling of fearful sublime, a little bit John Martin!

'The V&A drawing is composed of several small 'cave' drawings each made on a "stock" business card. They are done in the studio, or at the kitchen table and individually they represent remembered moments whilst moving through the squeezes, down the drops and in the tunnels. They are snapshot memories of when headtorch falls onto rock, wall, opening. After each trip I made a small pile to complement the on site sketchbook drawings, I think there are about 60-75 of them in all.'