I am drawn to images taken out of context from the natural and manmade worlds that acquire secondary, psychological meanings. For example, the effects of rain in water; inverted reflections; the shroud like appearance of garden row coverings. Over the past five years I have made three connected bodies of work, ‘View of Rain,’ ‘Ghosts,’ and ‘Ghosts, Darkly.’ ‘View of Rain’ is a series of paintings of raindrops that suggest the melancholic aspects of rain: the cold, wet, transparent, and grey, as well as playing on our perception through ripples disturbing reflected images beyond recognition. ‘Ghosts,’ made in the faint material of silverpoint, appear as specters or veils. Through the drawing process, these huddled groups allude to fragility and the cycle of growth and dying. ‘Ghosts, Darkly’ expand upon the references to bodies and shrouds from the earlier ‘Ghosts’ series. The structural frames and underlying plants become ‘skeletons’ while the translucent, stretched coverings become ‘skins.’ My use of white pencil on black paper suggests x-ray images or photographic negatives. Emerging from dark grounds, they also appear as apparitions. Across all three series, human relationships and states of mind are inferred through the phenomena I depict.

Shona Macdonald

Shona Macdonald