Image: Mark Moore Fine Art, Los Angeles
Mark Moore Fine Art is presenting an online exhibition of Canadian artist Michael Batty’s ‘Reflections: The Ipswich River Drawing Series 2003,’ which closes this Sunday.
The series consists of graphite drawings made in response to Batty’s 2003 journey along the Ipswich River in northeastern Massachusetts.
Each drawing was executed in a single sitting with one continuous graphite line that moves rhythmically back and forth across the paper, gradually filling the surface through repetition. Known for its calm waters and mirrored reflections, the river became both the inspiration and conceptual framework for the work.
The exhibition includes ‘Ipswich River drawing #10,’ ‘Ipswich River drawing #11,’ ‘Ipswich River drawing #15,’ and ‘Ipswich River drawing #16,’ all dated 2003.
Dense layers of graphite obscure fixed points of reference, inviting the viewer into a visual field that shifts between depth and flatness, memory and perception.
Influenced by the tradition of automatic drawing, Batty’s approach embraces intuition over predetermined composition, while the continuous line functions as both a record of physical movement and an act of recollection.
