Wolf and Other Animals, An Tobar, Tobermory, 1-28 July 2012.

Mike Darling has been a working artist for over thirty years. He lives with his family on the Isle of Mull, off the west coast of Scotland.

Digital Art

I’ve been painting using the computer for a couple of years now. I didn’t take to it at first. I’d been given a graphics pen and tablet as a present but found it a bit constricting. There seemed to be rules. I have been an artist for over thirty years; I don’t do rules. So I’ve followed the logical path and started breaking the rules and since then I have learned to love those pixels.

I have found the tablet really good for drawing. I think the lines have a really lyrical quality and the fact that there’s not that constant sense that your every move could irreversibly screw up the work, it is very liberating.

WOLF

When I approached the gallery the first question I was asked “why are you drawing wolves?”

In 1990 I had a dream. I was in a clearing in a forest; it was quite still. A wolf walked by quite close to me. I could hear its breathing and the fall of its paws on the grass. The wolf walked away into the forest. A very tangible dream, loaded with symbolism, and apparently not an uncommon one. I did a painting as a result and it was called ‘The Wolf Dream’. I was very fond of the painting but sold it when short of money; an action I subsequently regretted.

I decided to make a new wolf picture and started reading books. Inevitably I came across the writing of Aldo Leopold. There isn’t really any going back once you have read what he has to say. Everything about habitat loss and extinction of species and the problems caused through this loss for human beings, but yet instigated by human beings, was predicted by Aldo Leopold, John Muir and others, over eighty years ago. Will we ever learn?

Mike Darling, 2012

Source: An Tobar