Mario Esteves is looking 4 spaces 2 exhibit work's photostream

Observation of a place and its contents is essential for me to attempt to record its fleeting presence and meaning. I usually draw daily on location; I observe, register and assimilate the form of what I see. I seat down, kneel or stand until I am satisfied with what I have done. Drawing after drawing I build an ongoing visual diary of a place preserving each day’s experience. Like John Virtue my methods are similar, I became customised with the form of the subjects, the lines and the shapes become more fluid and less fragmented. Drawing on the spot fixes a structure for the size, shape and caracheter of the elements within my field of vision. It creates a framework, which supports an expressive tonal chiaroscuro. Perspective proportion and tone also become harmonised with etched lines and overworked dramatic contrast of white and black the narrative emerges. Memory and imagination also now becoming implicated; it’s like riding a bicycle the more you do it the easier it becomes not to fall. They are references, as points of departure for a process of an ongoing documentation of a reaction and reflection a summary and effect of an experiential action.
Drawing peculiar dependency on a direct physical process, elevate to me its importance. This work on paper can be done anywhere at home on the studio; life drawing classes, on the train, waiting for a bus and what I need its very simple too. The biro and the paper can always be with me, in contrast other media such as painting, photography or even printmaking might have to be planned. This immediacy allows me to document what I see and find interesting as if it was a diary of life, a record of the ephemeral and the vernacular daily living. It works as a depository of memories that are personal and intimate. As well it is the authentic documentation present in the same piece of paper, its evolution, development exists in the same space. Its becoming it is apparent, relevant and sometimes unknown. Its freedom and process is the core of its existence. Its primal qualities are also conjured through the simplicity of its marks, any erasure or mistakes on its becoming will convey honesty and transparency of its process. The accident is part of the drawing like anything else’s, it’s the drawing in its pure sense and this is the honesty that I like.


Drawing its my favourite thing to do because it is the result of a special kind of activity and even other processes such as intaglio, painting or etching do not offer such immediacy. Drawing is an exploratory and analytical process and embraces complex ways of looking at the subjects and that is sometimes a challenging exercise. Drawing is a focused and thoughtful process that engages me with the paper, subject matter and the mind.
Thin lines, bold lines, forms, shapes and shading are all used within this context to build or materialise a thought or idea.
From the diverse ways of doing that, another considerations can be made such as choices of papers. Those can be widely available to the diverse ray of thickness, roughness and scale where diverse marks that can be made, this media offers a versatile spectrum of possibilities depending on the artist ambitions. The acts of making the mark can also be very liberal, from wet to dry, concentrated or condensed the marks and materials are from an infinite list.

This almost obsessive medium gets into the soul deeply, that happens when you are drawing it is almost like going in to a meditative state where the mind and the body are connected and express them selves by the line tone and mark made on the surface. Absorption or a withdrawing from anything else’s, the world becomes reduced to a piece of paper with its boundaries, edges and centre. Its line, mark, intimacy, informality, immediacy, memory and narrative are also symbolic characteristics that connect us to our ancestor.


My work could be defined thematically as Still Life using objects that exist or have been created for the use of the artist, for example mannequins, triangles, spheres, cubes, pencils and other studio materials.
For me the making of the final piece isn’t necessarily important. The product might change and evolve until its finished it as not been started with the intention of having a final piece, but rather a physical interaction with materials. The doings and interaction with the object is my focus and preoccupation. The artefact is sometimes created by serendipity and its existence is sometimes casual.

“My practice is concerned with a process, a record of the ephemeral and the vernacular daily living. The resulting works are casual and yet engendered with a poetic sensibility.”

“My practice is an exploratory and analytical process it embraces drawing, painting and printmaking as primary processes based media. Its usual for me to alternate from each other to borrow similar approaches and incorporate them in each other.”

“For me the making of the final piece isn’t necessarily important. The doings and interaction with the object is my focus and preoccupation. The artefact is sometimes created by serendipity and its existence is sometimes casual.”








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