‘Enter The Well of The Spirit’ is an immersive drawing installation that explores the mystical quality of Cornish sacred wells through a process-driven magical realism. In Cornish folklore, holy wells are regularly associated with healing, fertility, and a transition space between the living and the dead. It is this duality between life-giving and the uncanny which so preoccupies this work. The ambiguous processes used strive to create a new landscape where the viewer is both at peace and disturbed by the space.

Each large-scale charcoal drawing depicts a scene from three ancient well sites in Cornwall, with the accompanying watercolor frieze telling the narrative of each location’s surrounding landscape. By reimagining a traditionally biblical format, the frieze provides a window into a colorized, fantastical realm. The contrast between color and charcoal strives to evoke the sacred well’s dual nature as well as representing the constantly connected relationship between Cornish mythology and landscape. The back wall depicts the Holywell bay sacred well, with the left wall showing St Cuby’s sacred well in Liskeard and the right wall showing Morden Clootie well in Penzance.

When stepping into this installation, one is overcome by claustrophobic compositions; the drawings loom high on each wall and confuse regular concepts of distance, thus encouraging the onlooker to decide what mysteries lurk behind the abstracted marks. ‘Enter The Well of The Spirit’ aims to promote a lesser-known area of Cornish heritage and inspire in viewers a renewed respect for ancient sites through fantastical intrigue.