I usually put left over paint from my tests into wine bottle tops and attach a piece of paper to record the location, the date made and/or date collected and the colour. Here’s a selection that I pulled out the other day.
Earth Paints
All articles filed in Organic paints
Waimakariri Green Pigment
A page from one of my test books, showing this green sedimentary rock from the Waimakariri river. I make these tests every time a new paint is made. This in my ninth A4 book.
14 Day Challenge
Being pushed to take risks is one way to new creativity. I am enjoying this Skillshare class “Fearless Art Challenge” by Marie-Noelle Wurm.
This image using oil pastels (which defeated me badly in the past) was again attempted in the two day prompt – Metamorphosis I and II – for days 5 and 6.
Most recently this has been my attempt at Day 8’s “Colours and More Colours”. I used my own handmade paint – Indigo from pigment powder, a local rock pigment powder that was rubbed on to the paper, and Okains Bay watercolour paint.
Love the streak of indigo in the brown pigment.
Day 9 coming up…
Catching Up
Have not had the time to post much in the past couple of years. So here goes…
Clay, in one form or another seems to keep popping up in my artworks.
Here I was getting ready for the Turanga library workshops in January. Some of the tools of the trade, including at the top right my first muller in 2007 – a stone with one flat side to it. You can still see the colour of the last pigment that was ground with it – it worked ok, but you can get a finer powder using the glass muller to finish the process. I used a concrete tile as the grinding base. I now use a stone pestle and mortar to initially grind the shattered rock or clay. Making paint is the art process I seem to want to return to. To see what colour will appear during the printmaking process.
Pot and vessel shapes are another obsession. I like the quirkiness of painting images of ceramic pots in my clay-based paints.
But I do also use ‘ordinary paint’ – see what happens when I follow one of Peggy Dean’s Skillshare classes! (‘Discover your creative style’.)
But there’s more… like actually making ceramic objects which I have been doing over the past year with Ruth Stanton McLeod’s guidance. It is a tray, not a pot this time however.
A few objects in front of Janie Porter’s landscape painting: My daughter’s papier maché bird; a horse’s leather shoe (used in Victorian times to protect the grass when grass cutting being done, so I was told); pebbles and a slice of rock; an art nouveau pewter pot; and one of my first ceramic pots. On the left is more Oxford chalk and clay watercolour on board.
Below is a rock (kindly given to me and collected by my dear friend June Inch) from near the top of Mt Oxford – and the paint. The colour comes through as a little too green in the photograph, and I’ve tried to correct it …
Finally, here is a ceramic-watercolour combo: one of my pottery efforts – works great!
LOCALity
I took part in this exhibition, and showed some of my paintings made with ink from empty seed pods from Harakeke (NZ flax plant). I also held a paintmaking workshop.
Here is the published information:
Last days for the exhibition LOCALity at Arts in Oxford, 72 Main St, Oxford. Exhibition closes Tues 10 July 2018.
LOCALity: a group exhibition exploring location, materiality & positioning
Arts in Oxford is pleased to present a selection of artworks by Canterbury artists Mark Adams, Mike Boot, Tony Bond, Cheryl Lucas, Elfi Spiewack, Tessa Warburton and Celia Wilson.
Artists each have diverse, unique practices but collectively are themes of rural life that connect all the works. Local geology, farming industry, water issues, native and introduced flora, recycling, repurposing are all reflected in this curated exhibition.
Images by Arts In Oxford.
(You can just see my artworks on the wall in this photo above.)
Press Release:
Art_in_Oxford_LOCALity_Press Release_final-1
Printmaking Workshop
Colours of Canterbury and other places, made at this morning’s printmaking workshop at Arts in Oxford Gallery. Many thanks to Jo who made these lovely paints.
Walks in the Waitakere Ranges
Have just found this draft which was started late last year, so I thought I should finish it.
In November I spent a week near the Waitakere Ranges just north of Auckland, and had the opportunity for some lovely bush walks.
Paddocks and regenerating forest – Manuka a nursery species. Ponga, tree ferns, Kauri alongside the track.
Close up of Kauri bark. Gorgeous!
Crossed this stream. Typical of the bush streams in the area. This one is near civilisation.
Definitely not in the bush! Planted at the entrance to a property. Looks like a Black Eyed Susan vine Thunbergia alata.
Kawakawa , Macrocarpa excelsum– lovely holes in the leaves from it’s friendly co-habitant, the Kawakawa looper moth caterpillar.
I managed to find some pigments – mainly hard clay, and some small clay pebbles, rounded by the running stream water. I’ve never seen these before, was quite a surprise. Because they are wet, the colour comes off on to your fingers, and you can easily mark another harder surface. I thought perhaps that could have started the use of clay as paint…
Canterbury Pigments
I’ve been working with my pigment rock collection lately. Re-testing and recording to replace the work I did in Textbook 2 which was lost (i.e., stolen…). The rocks and earths of the Canterbury Plains produce these colours that are presently on show in “View and Do” at the Arts in Oxford gallery. All the artists taking part in the exhibition are holding workshops. The workshops are varied – watercolour painting, abstract design, ceramics, box making and paint making. Volcanic and sedimentary rocks, chalk and lime are gathered here to make twelve separate watercolour paintings, all 50 x 95 mm on black paper. Details of the location of the pigments in each painting are listed below. The details are in the same order as the paintings:
Green dye from Black Turtle Bean
Following on from the previous post about black bean dye –
The next day, bicarbonate of soda was added to the Black Turtle Bean solar dye. Colour changed to green and this colour transferred to the un-mordanted silk and cotton scraps.
This test needs to be redone; the bicarb was added to the original dye which was probably a bit tired – the beans were ‘going off’ at the time.
I also added to the solar dye pot some rolled-up paper, but the green disappeared into a brown-green when applied to paper. Something in the paper which is photocopy paper reacting with this dye. Where the pools of dye were deeper the green colour is just apparent. This paper is stuck onto the test page and covered the swatches in the above image, hence the change of page direction!
Colours from a Landscape
I am currently showing some pigment colour swatches at the Dunedin Botanic Gardens, and in October I am doing a workshop on making paint. This exhibition was facilitated through the Blue Oyster Gallery in Dunedin. Also included in the show are some natural pigments on paper – eco prints – and some raw pigment. The two artworks on paper show colours from Waikari (green) and Ashley Gorge (pink and green) in North Canterbury. Many thanks to Clare Fraser from the Dunedin Botanic Gardens who is in charge of the venue. I think the colours look fantastic presented on black paper against the lovely red walls of the Information Centre!
The pigment swatches each show a colour found at a specific location which is named on the swatch.
Appearing below are some of the photos I received from Jaime Hanton, Blue Oyster Gallery, Dunedin, who kindly photographed the show and installed the work for me :
This is not my anticipated installation for this show as the initial selection was stolen. My box was left on the pavement by the courier company and disappeared overnight. The items in this box were some of those in the photograph shown in the display case, bottom left corner. If, by any chance, they turn up, I would just love to have them back. They represent five years research, experiment and recording. I have given up hope of ever seeing them again, however, and will re-build as much of the information as I can… Worse things happen, and I ‘count my blessings’.
Shells were traditionally used for paint containers!
Celia Wilson 