Revisiting Photographs from the Roaches, Staffordshire and a Conversation with a Third Year.

Roughly a year ago I visited the Roaches in the Staffordshire Moorlands as part of my primary research into exposed natural landscapes for my project at the time. After researching landscape imagery in books recently I decided to revisit the photographs that I took on this visit as the key features of the landscape there (rock formations, the earthy colour palette) are the same as the ones I am studying in my current project in Cornwall.

In response to these photographs I completed a series of sketchbook drawings using quite a quick, visceral method of drawing with a pencil to give a more organic aesthetic than the lines provided by a pen. The drawings are abstracted and not clearly identifiable, however, particularly in the landscape oriented piece, there is a distinct whiff of nature and the environment contained within them.

The revisiting of these images has sparked the research into similar landscapes within Cornwall that I could visit as part of my current practice, similar moorland locations include Bodmin Moor and slightly further away, Dartmoor. Old quarry locations would also be ideal for my research due to the colour palettes and also the disruption to the landscape caused by the area’s industrial history creating interesting formations and shapes with the earth, which would be ideal for drawing and also collecting samples of rocks and earth from these locations to use within my work to tie it more strongly to the landscapes it is inspired by.

I spoke with Emily Tapp, a third year Fine Art student as her work uses similar ideas and processes to mine, rocks and landscape being at the centre of both our practices and frottage being a common technique. This conversation pushed my motivation towards using natural processes and items within my practice, potentially exploring the making of paint from pigment derived from rocks, a method Emily uses in her practice. Also (or in the case of this proving unsuccessful) I will experiment with adding colour to my work by rubbing natural items such as moss, grass and mud onto it, still gaining pigment from natural matter without the time consuming and difficult process of grinding and making rocks into paint. Instead of using frottage as one amongst multiple techniques to capture a landscape in my work, a suggestion was to use rubbing as a way forward within my work; rub not just rocks but everything within a specific location (trees, concrete, grass, metal, bricks etc.), this may unearth the differences between rubbings of natural matter and items in an urban landscape, making the type of location distinguishable from the imagery provided by the rubbing collection. The comparison could then be made from a rubbing piece to detailed drawing to a photograph of the same location to determine the piece most representative – my initial thought would be that the rubbing would better locate itself than the more visually accurate options as it is a literal impression of the landscape rather than one perspective of it.

Grebe, Emily Tapp (2017) (one of three)

I will meet up with Emily Tapp again in the future once my project has had time to evolve and develop in response to our first conversation in order to partake in a mutual crit, evaluating how both of our projects have changed and giving any suggestions for future directions to take our work in.