Converge 2016 opens today, 29 January 2016. Andrew Mackenzie is one of three invited artists, along with Steven MacIver and Sam Johnson, exhibiting at Converge 2016 Visual Arts Scotland. Andrew MacKenzie created three large-scale drawing for the exhibition. The drawings, made with many layers of pastel and gouache on paper, are based on drawings made of an abandoned service station and are 150x112cm. One of his drawings won the Open Eye Gallery Award. Andrew MacKenzie’s work is about landscape, but that landscape is muted and monochromatic. The bright part of the work, that stands out visually, is the line drawing hovering over the landscape that appears to be schematics or architectural plans. While very little of the surface area of the work is actually covered up by these few lines the affect is that the lines are much more visible than the landscape. The bright colour, straight lines and hard edges make you pay attention to the lines and almost miss the landscape, which becomes a sort of shadowy pattern. After you spend some time looking you can create more of a balance between the two and I found myself learning to shift my focus back and forth. Sometimes th