Patsy McArthur, Waterway, Charcoal Drawing, 2023

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Waterway Charcoal on paper Float framed in white behind anti-reflection museum quality glass. Artwork: 46 x 57.5 inches / 117 … Read more Waterway Charcoal on paper Float framed in white behind anti-reflection museum quality glass. Artwork: 46 x 57.5 inches / 117 x 131 cm Framed size: 51.5 x 58 inches / 131 x 147 cm This large-scale contemporary charcoal drawing presents a dramatic, immersive scene of turbulent water and partially submerged figures, created through dense layering, gestural mark-making, and controlled erasure techniques. The artist uses tonal contrast and textured charcoal application to build depth, movement, and emotional intensity across the surface. Waterway is a monumental exploration of turbulence, immersion, and human vulnerability. At a sweeping scale, the work engulfs the viewer in churning currents of charcoal, where human forms emerge, fragment, and recede within surging, atmospheric strokes. The composition feels both cinematic and visceral, capturing the sensation of being pulled into a living, breathing body of water. The interplay between dark, saturated passages and bright areas of exposed paper creates a rhythmic push and pull, mimicking the physical sensation of moving through water. This work functions as both figurative narrative and abstract emotional landscape, exploring themes of survival, surrender, and transformation. Its monumental scale and cinematic composition make it a powerful statement piece, particularly suited for collectors seeking museum-quality contemporary works on paper. Artist Statement: "Waterway is a large, gestural charcoal drawing created for a 2023 solo exhibition in London. Drawn using reference video footage from a rooftop lap pool in Lisbon, I made this drawing in just one sitting to keep it fresh, moving the charcoal around with large rags to capture the light and swell of the water as the figures moves through it." This piece is attributed to the mentioned designer/maker. It has no attribution mark and no
official proof of authenticity,
however it is well documented in design history. I take full responsibility for any authenticity



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