Using the Woodland Trust Ancient Tree inventory as a guide, I will be spending the following year investigating trees of significance around the UK as inspiration in my work and to inspire a curiosity in these trees with others. Simultaneously, I’ll be looking at ways to ‘green my practice’ by learning how to make my own botanical inks and pigments as well as by researching various ‘sustainable’ paints already available. This is to not only to challenge environmental issues in contemporary art, but to also physically incorporate the landscape into the works themselves.
DYCP BLOG
Queen Elizabeth I Oak
Yesterday I ventured out to West Sussex to meet an 800 year old (possibly 1,000 year old) sessile oak tree. The Queen Elizabeth I Oak is a large sessile oak in West Sussex, England. It has a girth of 12.5–12.8 metres (41–42 ft), and is about…
Bark paintings
After having a go at making pine cone ink, I saved all the waste material to create some paper/biomaterial forms (and threw in some additional studio remnants.) These were made from coffee filters, pine needle pulp, sawdust and coffee grinds.…
Oak Gall Ink
My first attempt at making oak gall ink. Something I’ve wanted to try for ages. Knowing my parents go on walks nearly every day back home in California, I asked them (half-jokingly) to collect oak galls, acorn caps and wild…
Pine Cone Ink
After a sloppy and amateur start last week… I feel I redeemed myself slightly with my Sequoia pine cone ink this week. I just boiled them with soda crystals. I roughly tried to follow measurements I found online and record…
Dispatches from the Sloppy Chemist
Ok… I wasn’t sure I would publish this post because it’s actually so embarrassing- my absolute ignorance in the field of pigment-making. I know there’s a lot of people who have been doing this for a long time, that I…