ACE Bogs exhibition - Naseem Darbey

I am a sculptor who loves to draw! I share this love of drawing with audiences of all ages and backgrounds. I believe that anyone can draw if given the tools and some ideas to make the process fun: no need to worry or be too precious. I share fast drawing challenges to encourage people to observe and connect with the subject they have chosen. I want them to really understand its form. Great observational drawing should be eighty percent looking at the subject, and twenty percent at your drawing. This connects perfectly with the role of being Citizen Scientists carefully observing and capturing the ongoing recovery of our precious peatlands.

I’m a creative lead at grassroots arts organisation Keighley Creative. In 2020, we created the Drawing Box project to connect communities through drawing during the Covid-19 lockdown period. For ACE Bogs, this evolved into the Bog in A Drawing Box. We decided to take the concept and extend it to support groups to get onto our peatlands to draw. Everyone involved received their own kit to keep, full of great drawing materials, a sketchbook and a hand lens. This last tool was intended to help them to observe this beautiful landscape in microscopic detail. Peatlands are special when you get up close: that’s where the diversity and beauty are. I love the moment when someone new to this process suddenly brings vegetation into focus with a ‘Wow...!’ I know at this moment they’ve found their way into this incredible and vibrant microenvironment. I remember the first moment I saw sphagnum moss appear through the lens like feathery glass – it’s my absolute favourite!

The work of our participants acts a bit like an additional form of data collection. The plants they choose to focus on, the aspects of the form they find interesting, the notes they take as they go, and even the conversations that arise as people sit amongst the heather and the mosses all create a bank of information on how people in this region feel about this landscape. And hopefully, through drawing it, they connect with it a little more and get to know it a little better.