My initial thoughts and inspiration remain in the natural world, trees and woods, silver birches in particular and the cycle of growth, decay and renewal within the woodland setting around Towneley Park and Smallholdings Trail.
After a September walk back in 2019 I made a series of paintings of birches using watercolours and a metal scraper. I focused on the simplicity of the forms. In terms of colour observing the browns and greys but also small flashes of dark blue and orange.
I spent a lot of time trying to make and alter thrown “tree” shapes with little success and after a short dalliance with coiling I decided to go for hand building. Hand building is quite out of my comfort zone but I was running out of options!
Using ES40 and adding organic material from the forest floor I started a series of large forms. I really enjoyed the process, experimenting with shape and texture and was pleased with the resulting pieces which I considered worked well as a group.
I returned to the work of ceramic artists whose work I have long admired and took a good look at form, texture and colour.
David Brown Jenny Beavan Robin Welch
I researched the work of artists working with trees on a large scale and though I admire Nash’s work I have found a passion for the work of Giuseppe Penone and Emilie Brzezinski.
Brzezinski’s Water Garden Penone’s Spazio de Luce
In January I had no facilities for making as my studio/shed was in need of repair, so I went back into the woods, taking photographs and drawing, looking closely at the forms and groupings of trees.
I teased out the features of the bark that interested me the most which were:
Horizontal bands/layers
Clusters of bacterial growths
Cracks and textures
During the last couple of weeks, I have been making maquettes, simple forms in various sizes for testing – a mini forest of testing trees. Looking back at the watercolour paintings I originally dismissed the ones with added branches as they seemed to complicate the forms but now, they served as a blueprint for the maquettes, with two “branch” forms on each maquette.
Back in the workshop I look forward to experimenting with sgraffito and applied layers, growths and cracks. I will use slips and oxides for colour and texture. When I hit the Magic Formula I intend to create a Silver Birch Installation on a large scale. My sense of place will be reflected on the pieces in the form of images of photographs and postcards of the Towneley woods and deerpond, as inspired by Brzezinski’s work.
Opmerkingen