Scrolls & Wallhangings

This scroll is a tapestry of various techniques I use where art meets nature; plant collagraphs, leaf rubbings, handmade paper moulded over leaves, coffee prints on mineral paper using acorn caps, cedar bows and moss, weaving with flax fibre and twigs, painting on mulberry paper and muslin with my natural crayons, inks and watercolours, all hanging from a wooden spool. These are all naturally sourced, local materials used creatively by human hands in several ways, illustrating how we can live and create in harmony with nature.

As a mixed media artist who uses several mediums, there is always a constant dialogue with the materials, when I am starting a new piece, to figure out what medium is going to represent the focus, message or texture I am trying to get across.

This piece tells the story of that conversation and includes a good variety of the mediums I use. Each of them has a different feel to them. I love having all of these at my disposal – printmaking, collage, drawing and mark making, painting, handmade paper, bark and leaf rubbings, embossing and most recently, weaving.

Most of the time I chose natural or local materials; my natural inks, crayons and watercolour paints made from local plants and soil, natural wools and fibres for the weaving and nature finds, collected sustainably, on my walks. And the piece is finished off  with bobbins from the local wool industry.

This little mixed media scroll is inspired by the wild plants along the edges of gardens, fields and on the verges of roads that act as wildlife corridors for insects and animals, some of which are ‘on the verge’ of extinction. These strips of weeds, wildflowers, whatever you chose to call them, are so important for wildlife to feed on, nest in or use as a green highway to move from one natural area to another safely. As David Attenborough has recently highlighted, over 95% of wildflower meadows in UK have been decimated since the 1930’s. This little scroll is sending a message, urging people to pause and think before cutting, spraying or tidying their gardens too much and embrace these strips of wild planting as the new beautiful.

‘A Walk in the Woods’ describes the overwhelming sense of wonder I have when I walk in a forest with all of the textures of various types of bark, plants, trees, and leaves on the forest floor, and it features two of my favourite trees; oak and birch’.

‘When I walk in the forest I feel a child’s excitment from the spongy sensation of the forest floor. I am in wonder about the many layers of textured greens and browns created by leaves, pine needles and twigs that have fallen over hundreds of years, worked on by insects and worms, to create this deep, rich mattress of forest humus.’