Plant & Pigment

Upcoming
Workshops

an ongoing project and journey into the land, down to its ancient earthy depths and through its wild and vibrant undergrowth.

Wild Colours & Land Stories

Within this project I explore my local landscapes and gently gather materials and observations to process into inks, paints, stories and artworks.

Every plant and stone has a name and a story of its own – the natural world tells us far richer and more impressive tales than those that westernised cultures would have us listen to.

Through my work I aim to add depth to the collective view and understanding of our surrounding landscapes – encouraging relationship with the very ground beneath our feet and drawing attention to the much larger story that we’re a part of.

“We need acts of restoration, not only for polluted waters and degrading lands, but also for our relationship to the world.”

Robin Wall Kimmerer.

Knowing the Land

Knowing: to know and relate to something deeply, like a friend. To know a landscape in this way may require multiple forms of knowledge, be it scientific or indigenous, observed or experienced.

The Land: referring to landscapes big and small and all that they’re made of. This includes the plants, fungi, animals (including humans), microbes, soils, rocks, seasons, cycles, weather and stories.

‘Knowing the Land’ is the guiding idea and central focus for the work I make within Plant and Pigment. It is the place I return to with my notes, drawings and handfuls of Earth.

Gather, Process, Make

Working with foraged colours can transform one’s creative practice and approach to making art as well as providing whole new reasons to get outside and to learn the names of the different plants and rocks around us.

Through Plant and Pigment I hope to create opportunities and inspiration for others to make their own foraged colours and to encourage a collective desire to ‘get to know’ the land.

For anyone interested in incorporating colour-making into their creative practice I will soon be teaching workshops where I will go through my own practice of Gather, Process, Make.

GATHER

Materials*:

Plants, rocks, soils, clays, fibres

Observations:

Draw, listen, write, research

*Gathered using sustainable foraging techniques or harvested from crops I have regeneratively grown.

PROCESS

Grind and refine pigments

Chop, crush, simmer and soak plants for inks and dyes.

Prepare fabrics and fibres

Examine observations and learn from research

Develop ideas and concepts

MAKE

Make inks and paints

Create artworks

Dye fibres

Teach workshops and courses

Write stories

Play with colour

Inkscapes & Landstories

Examples of my work within Plant & Pigment

Watercolour sets

I occasionally offer carefully crafted sets of watercolour paints with accompanying information about the origins of their contents. Using these paints gives the artist an opportunity to connect with the land and the depths of geological time whilst they work.

Inkscapes

These pieces showcase some of the colours present at a certain location, within a season or are sometimes simply a form of play! Their abstract forms represent elements of a story that I wish to tell such as natural cycles or the layering and transformation of geological formations.

Paintings, Drawings and Linocuts:

These artworks are the results of my explorations into different landscapes and are often created with the intention of drawing the viewer’s attention to the multiple smaller elements which make up the bigger picture.

The artworks can be seen as celebrations of the materials that made them as well as an invitation to the viewer to spend time noticing their own surroundings and form a closer connection with their local landscapes.

A Geological Timeline of Pigments

A chart of 12 different pigments arranged by age with descriptions of their origins and geological stories. Each colour has been gathered, processed and painted onto the poster by hand.