In January this year, during the depths of winter, I was an artist in residence at Cill Rialaig, in Ballinskelligs, Co. Kerry. The residency is a cluster of cottages perched on the edge of a peninsula overlooking the Skelligs. My cottage gave me space and some dedicated time to immerse myself in my surroundings, creating colour from the landscape.
I’m working towards a body of work that will be a culmination of experiments in techniques of colour creation, and an exploration of different methods of applying colour to surfaces. In the Graphic Studio I have been looking at ways to print without using plastic of oil based mediums. I’ve been questioning the ecological effect paints, inks and mediums have on the natural world. There does seem to be a number of ways to use plant or algae based medium with pigment to create paint and ink. Nice one. So, heading down to Kerry, I knew I wanted to create a couple of pigments from the landscape.
Cill Rialaig also has a print studio. I’ve been attempting to create greater colour density in the strokes that I use, and I have images floating around in my peripheral vision of how I want to bruise and blush colour onto the page. I haven't been able to get paintbrushes to create the mark I want to, so I took this opportunity to spend a few days immersing myself in mono-printing techniques. I was unbelievably lucky that a dear friend and artist, Clare Henderson, was in residence for a month in another cottage. We spent the days tipping around in our own cottages engrossed in our own work and experiments, or in the print studio rolling up prints and getting totally engrossed in each print. We ate together everyday and discussed where we were at and how to get over the next hurdle. We Clare is a master printmaker so and sharing a studio is always very nourishing.
The daylight was short, but when the sun did shine the cottage lit up with bright light. With the frost still in the air there wasn’t much in the way of juicy berries or flowers. But the beach held some hidden gems beneath the rocks where rust had stained the silt. Purple rocks ground into clay.
Charred oak from the stove ground down into a smooth silvery dust led to beautiful strokes in monochrome. The rust created a deep orange hue, and the ash from peat added a tonal dimension to the palette, with it’s lighter orange-yellow colour. The dense purple clay worked like chalk and dried opaque which allowed me to apply layers atop one another. But the charcoal created the most interesting marks for me. It came to the print studio with me and I blended it with extender and aqua inks which worked ok, but needs some more tinkering to get right.
I created loads of work at Cill Rialaig and am really looking forward to getting it out int the world. Some sketches, although so unintentional, yield the nicest strokes and echo the dense darkness against the bright winter light. I finished some pieces, which will be mounted and sealed back in my studio. Some works are just the beginning of something and will hang on my walls and dip in and out of my practice for the next while.
Before arriving I had asked for support for my residency, through the sale of some of the experiments I would be making. It was really great to send out my work as soon as it was made, and to think that every pool of pigment rich landscape ink would end up across Ireland. Thanks to everyone who supported the residency. Let’s do it again soon!
Below are a couple of finished works. Some are available in SO Fine Art, and some will be mounted and sealed over the next while. Keep an eye on my instagram to see how I get on with that!
If you’d like to know more about my available work, or any of the pieces you’ve seen here, get in touch or join my mailing list where I’ll be releasing new work very soon.
Kari
