painting within limits
Posted: January 26, 2019 Filed under: eARTh | Tags: Aesthetics, Arte Povera, Arts, arts research, Cornwall, Earth, earth pigments, eco art, ecopsychology, Environmental art, indigenous culture, painting, Pigment, Visual arts 1 Commentnew paintings from Cornwall – early 2019
For many years I have exclusively used colours from the earth in my paintings, gathering and processing all the pigments myself. Each location offers a unique palette and quality of colour to work with as well as a deeper understanding of that place.
To some it may seem as if creativity is being limited. “How can I paint the sky or the trees?” are frequent questions when running workshops. Working with earth pigments has changed the way I work and my understanding of painting in many ways. It has enriched my perception of colour and the ‘material’ of colour. Black is no longer “an absence of light”. For me it allows a specific expression of place orientated, of course, by my own relationship to being there.
The paintings here respond to the nature of earth colours and experiences in West Cornwall…
distance what we have become (Cornish earth pigments on canvas; 60x40cm) © p ward 2019
big red wolf moon that I did not see (Cornish earth pigments on board; 76x28cm) © p ward 2019
to run aground an island (Cornish earth pigments on card; 27x15cm) © p ward 2019
estuary (Cornish earth pigments on wood; 20×14.5x2cm) © p ward 2019
untitled I, II, III (Cornish earth pigments on board; 25x26cm; 25x28cm; 25x26cm) © p ward 2019
offcuts homestead (Cornish earth pigments on wood; 29x24x3cm) © p ward 2019
at fault (Cornish earth pigments on board; 80x26cm) © p ward 2019
fairy queen (Cornish earth pigments on canvas; 25x30cm) © p ward 2019
© P Ward 2019
expressions of an intimate ecology 
All lovely. I particularly like the opaqueness of the paint. It has such presence.