contact: E: info@franceshatch.co.uk M: 07946903930
Methods
PLACE PALETTES
Charmouth’s shore line is mobile and malleable- particularly after prolonged rain when Blue Lias, Greensand and Gault slump to the shore where they get licked clean. Marloes Sands has un angular Silurian strata boulders bigger than houses as well as soft reds that melt into the sea. Every place I visit has is own palette - pigments in suspension, creamed, putty-like or unyeilding, I learn about their properties by fingering and testing. I record the testing on what I've come to call 'place palettes'.
Tools and pigments are gathered to become my palette of marks and mixtures; from these I reshape the materiality of the place in that very place. Each visit to an identical area yields a different palette.
Matter migrates - at different rates.
Making images using local materials requires a concern for stability. Earth colours are immensely light-fast. They sometimes need grinding or grating or suspending in water in order to use them. I need to bring the binding medium to the site. In the example at the base of the page (South Beach) the binder is an acrylic medium.
At other times I use an animal binding medium (rabbit skin glue) which requires an exactitude and discipline in usage. In 2012, a bursary (awarded by DVA/ ExLab for ‘action research’) funded research into binding and consolidation mediums.
Charmouth’s shore line is mobile and malleable- particularly after prolonged rain when Blue Lias, Greensand and Gault slump to the shore where they get licked clean. Marloes Sands has un angular Silurian strata boulders bigger than houses as well as soft reds that melt into the sea. Every place I visit has is own palette - pigments in suspension, creamed, putty-like or unyeilding, I learn about their properties by fingering and testing. I record the testing on what I've come to call 'place palettes'.
Tools and pigments are gathered to become my palette of marks and mixtures; from these I reshape the materiality of the place in that very place. Each visit to an identical area yields a different palette.
Matter migrates - at different rates.
Making images using local materials requires a concern for stability. Earth colours are immensely light-fast. They sometimes need grinding or grating or suspending in water in order to use them. I need to bring the binding medium to the site. In the example at the base of the page (South Beach) the binder is an acrylic medium.
At other times I use an animal binding medium (rabbit skin glue) which requires an exactitude and discipline in usage. In 2012, a bursary (awarded by DVA/ ExLab for ‘action research’) funded research into binding and consolidation mediums.
Animal protein binding medium
MATERIALS RESEARCH: Judith Wetherall's studio. Judith is a lecturer, practitioner and conservator in gilding and decorative arts) Exploration of animal protein glue and the integration and consolidation of locally sourced materials in Judith's studio (below). I had to adapt what I understood about the materials in order to take this process outside on site. Rabbit skin glue needs to be kept warm which presents an obvious challenge.
SOUTH BEACH, Studland, Dorset- working on site with acrylic binding mediums
publication:
DRAWING AND PAINTING: MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS. Thames and Hudson.
available see details
I've just received my copy and this is going to be a really useful book. Informative yet not prescriptive: rules are there to be broken... I'm thrilled to have been invited to contribute an Artist Profile.
DRAWING AND PAINTING: MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS. Thames and Hudson.
available see details
I've just received my copy and this is going to be a really useful book. Informative yet not prescriptive: rules are there to be broken... I'm thrilled to have been invited to contribute an Artist Profile.