Bass Rock Lighthouse

Generative software, drawing robot, Bic ballpoint on Strathmore heavyweight drawing paper. 30 x 42cm unframed. One off drawing (this is not a print).

This drawing is made of six layers of standard Bic ballpoint pen with different weights attached (5 blue ballpoint, 1 black ballpoint). There are nearly 5 million lines in this drawing, totalling approximately a mile of ink. It took three days to draw in total. The drawing is based on a photograph I took of the Bass Rock lighthouse from a boat in the Firth of Forth. The uninhabited rock is home to the largest colony of gannets in the world, which nest on every imaginable surface of the island, and fill the skies overhead.

I am interested in the uncanny effect of using one of the most humble and familiar writing implements in the world - the Bic ballpoint - to create a drawing with so much density of ink. The slight purplish colour of the ink evokes a nostalgia for a time before digital communication was so prevalent.

For each drawing sold, I will donate £5 to Trees for Life, to offset carbon and support the rewilding of the Scottish Highlands.

N.B. The ink in Bic ballpoints is robust, but not immune to UV light, so please mount this picture away from direct sunlight to avoid the colours fading. If possible, it would be good to use UV filtering glass in any framing.