Dynamic Equilibrium (Rock Fall) 01

Since my childhood in East Anglia, collecting crabs and sticklebacks from shores and streams, I have recognised the urgent need to review our collective relationship with the natural world. I walk (alone and with others), gather, make, paint, draw, share and use lens-based media in my research and practical process.

I am making ‘flat rocks’ using paints created from earth pigments collected during walks in the South West, along coasts, river valleys and hills. I work and walk in partnership with geologists, ecologists, naturalists, historians and anyone else who fancies a walk and talk.

These paintings interpret the coast, tidal shifts, the dynamic equilibrium of marine and shore ecology, the deep time compressed within the layers of rock, the continual process of change and erosion which defines the ecotone of this fragile SW coast.

I have been testing the function of painting to engender a deepened connection with the coast.

These works have a pulse. They understand the ocean as ‘the lungs of the planet’ and layers of sedimentary rock as the graveyards of previous generations of organic life. The fine silty mud along the Somerset coast and bright Cornish coastal pigments used in these paintings are the nutritious food for today’s shore ecology and the next layer of geological time.

I exhibit extensively and works in partnerships to lead artistic projects. Connections are at the heart of everything I paint, draw, film and share. I was elected an academician of the Royal West of England Academy in 2016.

 

Mixed Media | Somerset Coast Mudstone Paints with Shellac over ‘found’ Topographical Special Air Chart of Great Britain.

82x110cm

Framed and float mounted under glass