Calum Wallis

Calum Wallis is an artist currently studying an MA in Drawing at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee.

Growing up in Strathpeffer, the natural world played a big part in his childhood, where he spent a great deal of time scrambling and playing among the ancient stones of the West Highlands. Since graduating in Fine Art in 2017, his drawing practice has led him deeper into the wilderness where he spends time pondering the tumbling cycle of geological erosion and creation which forms the surface on which humanity exists. 

Increasingly this involves extended periods making monumental drawings in the wild. These will often be made flat on the ground, where weather and his own footsteps will erode the work as it is made just as they do with the rocks he is drawing.

The composite drawing shown here, titled "Mostly East Coast" was made over several excursions over the course of 2022 and pieces together 20 geological fragments from the East Coast of Scotland as well as some much farther afield. The drawing was made to be divided, much as one might take a stone home from the beach, where it will sit disembodied from its natural place but still hearkening to the surroundings of its creation. You may notice there are two pieces missing, which have found new homes after a prior exhibition at Open Eye Gallery in Edinburgh.

The etchings shown here have been made in 2023 and record stone and water from places which hold key thresholds in the artists life. These images have been etched first in a steel plate and then in ink and paper, where their perpetual movement and erosion are frozen for the time being.