In his highly-detailed pencil and graphite works on paper, many of which incorporate pastel and watercolors, British artist Alan Mercel-Sanca focuses on natural and architectural scenes. This preferred subject matter springs from a desire to investigate human beings’ relationship to their environment, be it built or natural. By exploring this connection to our surroundings, Mercel-Sanca investigates what he believes to be the spiritual power present in nature, and how that power is transformed by architecture.

Indeed, his representations of natural and built scenes evoke, through their hyper-realistic details, something fleeting and intangible. Though he is self-taught Mercel-Sanca’s treatment of light and texture is masterful. His technique conveys not only shapes and depth, but also warmth, odors and sounds. By tapping into our own collective experiences of nature and architecture, evoking distant sensory memories, his works accentuate our perpetual connection and interaction with our surroundings. Mercel-Sanca’s investigations of space, light and texture, provide a medium through which to explore our own relationship to space.