3 November 2022

Sustainable Art Practice

I am interested in being as sustainable in my art practices as I can be, and this year have an interest in the impact of pigments and chemicals in manufactured art media and the impact they have on the environment in production and disposal. The pieces of artwork that caught my attention and pigues my interest during the Bristol trip were those that were limited palattes, texture pieces of artwork using either one or mixed media, and those that were created using repurposed materials.

The one that really caught my attention was “King of Bees” by Frank To, which was ignited gunpowder and coloured powder on wooden panel. I need to research him further, but he is a humanitarian and supports various causes with his artwork. This piece of art got me thinking about different ways of using art materials and how to create using more natural pigments.

I am very interested in nature and whatever I create I wish to try and convey the essence of the story I’m narrating with my art or the subject matter. other artists whose work I was taken with because of either their story telling, colour palette, or materials used to create their work were, Claire Sparkes, Andrew Hardwick, Camilla Nock, Rachel Macdonnell and Becky Buchanan.

For my project I plan to research and explore making my own art materials from natural pigments that are available. i will also be experimenting with how these work on repurposed, scrap materials such as wood, metal, linen, canvas etc. I may also look at making my own paper however time restrictions may not allow for this. I like modelling clay so part of this work will be how can I take these theories and practice into ceramics?

I have no idea what the final art piece will be, however I do know that there will be texture, and layers and possibly some form of abstraction, as I tend to shy away from being realistic.