Alizarin, Mars Yellow , Mars Red, Translucent Mars Orange
Concerned with the period in the late 1800s and early 1900s when many traditional pigments were chemically analysed and synthetic versions were made. I am currently researching the pigments concerned, madder, indigo, the ochres, carbon blacks, oak gall ink and the synthetic versions, and wondering about both the science and the thought processes behind them ,and how they relate to now, to our relationship with the earth, with our past, and ideas of continuity and departure, passing things on, fertility of biology and of ideas, distillation, purity, and methods of production. There are a lot of questions floating about in these pieces.
This is a project in development. the way I work is to collect information, and ideas, to be making work while in the process of collection, some of that work makes it out in the world, others stay in the studio, taking their role as learning pieces, some end in the bin! SO I collect and collect, information, ideas, experiences, and then resolve over time into a collection, I think of this process like the sea, stirring things up in a storm, collecting all the particles in the water, then settling into a calm when the deposits can settle on to the sea floor in a new order, and some things are deposited on the beach and left outside, until the whole process stats again..
One of the features I like bout ochres dug from the earth and indigo, madder or oak gall from the plants of the soil is their individuality, their variance, their unpredicatblily, a kind of variation and at the same time these qualities also give them their traceability to where they were dug up or where they were grown, and in the case of indigo, not just where they were grown bu the place the plant originated from. The process of standardisation through chemical distillation means that the chemical pigments are reliable, consistent, permanent, uniform and rootless.
Finding titles, tiles of work and tiles of projects sometimes arrive unbidden, and other times appear along the way. This is a project in progress, please take time to check in from time to time for new thoughts and images, and message me on the site for details. where no titles have been posted it is because they are percolating..
So some of the thinking that is going on behind this project is concerned with scientific discoveries that were happening at the time, and the greater understanding of light, and the spectrum and associated ideas.
In addition there were troublesome philosophical notions of purity, which spilled dangerously into political narratives. In a sense the distillation of colours into one spectral hue echoes this. Useful for Chemistry, and for science in general but dangerous when applied to people. Natural pigments tend to be less pure in this sense and it is actually one of their richnesses.
Notions of economy come into play with the development of new pigments that tended to be cheaper and also far more concentrated and so suitable for mass and uniform production.
The period was unstable, a period of flux and change fuelled by technical and scientific discovery, political, economic and philisophical change. It was a society in flux.
This is a project in development. the way I work is to collect information, and ideas, to be making work while in the process of collection, some of that work makes it out in the world, others stay in the studio, taking their role as learning pieces, some end in the bin! SO I collect and collect, information, ideas, experiences, and then resolve over time into a collection, I think of this process like the sea, stirring things up in a storm, collecting all the particles in the water, then settling into a calm when the deposits can settle on to the sea floor in a new order, and some things are deposited on the beach and left outside, until the whole process stats again..
One of the features I like bout ochres dug from the earth and indigo, madder or oak gall from the plants of the soil is their individuality, their variance, their unpredicatblily, a kind of variation and at the same time these qualities also give them their traceability to where they were dug up or where they were grown, and in the case of indigo, not just where they were grown bu the place the plant originated from. The process of standardisation through chemical distillation means that the chemical pigments are reliable, consistent, permanent, uniform and rootless.
Finding titles, tiles of work and tiles of projects sometimes arrive unbidden, and other times appear along the way. This is a project in progress, please take time to check in from time to time for new thoughts and images, and message me on the site for details. where no titles have been posted it is because they are percolating..
So some of the thinking that is going on behind this project is concerned with scientific discoveries that were happening at the time, and the greater understanding of light, and the spectrum and associated ideas.
In addition there were troublesome philosophical notions of purity, which spilled dangerously into political narratives. In a sense the distillation of colours into one spectral hue echoes this. Useful for Chemistry, and for science in general but dangerous when applied to people. Natural pigments tend to be less pure in this sense and it is actually one of their richnesses.
Notions of economy come into play with the development of new pigments that tended to be cheaper and also far more concentrated and so suitable for mass and uniform production.
The period was unstable, a period of flux and change fuelled by technical and scientific discovery, political, economic and philisophical change. It was a society in flux.
Natural Pigments: vine black, bone black, ochres, madder and ultramarine
The use of oil exclusively with the older natural pigments references the oldest paintings of all, and the way that cooking fat, from rendered animals was mixed with carbon blacks in particular but also ochres and used in cave painting.
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Natural ultramarine, madder and yellow ochre in oil
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Synthesised pigments, synthetic indigo, Mars orange, mars yellow, French ultramarine, alizarin and carbon black in oil
Works on paper: Mixed natural and synthetic pigments in combination
Works on paper : Collage, sewn with yellow bookmakers linen yarn, using traditional pigments ochres and carbon black, oak gall ink, hand made gouache, Chinese ink on traditional hand made Japanese papers
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Industrial Graphite
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My uncle bought this long tubes of industrial graphite from the closing down auction of the Middlesborough steel works. He has given me some to use as pigment |
I'm making a series of works on paper with the graphite by crushing it by hand and applying directly to paper. the contrast between the industrial materials and the very immediate application made the process meditative, and human they are meditations on love and grief and called Lessons in Love
Love and Loss
industrial graphite on paper
A2
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Lessons in Love from Simone and for Simone
industrial graphite on paper
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Archaeologies
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Along side these works I have begun some works in a sub-series called Archaeologies, which layer up the pigments in time order with the oldest pigments at the base building up towards the newest, this seems to work best in oil and is a slow process. there are three works in progress at the moment, (see below) and one completed acrylic on paper version which will be at The Other Art Fair in March, the oil based ones will not be dry. If you would like to organise a studio visit to see them please contact me. |
Telephone02084445173
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sarahneedham@artfromlondonmarkets.com
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