I get pretty easily overwhelmed but I often find a place of calm in the organic, abstract patterns created by my pigments when they flow in streams of water and branch, fade and twine into each other. I’m glad for these moments of calm which are much needed at the moment but, particularly as I’m working on deciding a style for my oracle card deck, I can get where I spot so many beautiful colours, lines and patterns that even that can get a little overwhelming. I’ll take being overwhelmed by beautiful ideas I want to follow and artistic possibilities over the scary, frustrating aspects of the world these days but both can result in a feeling of so much more needing to be done that I have capacity for. If I stop trying to work out where everything fits for a moment though and how each little wonder can be woven into the stories that should be told, I can just enjoy that shadows can be a mountain range and whorls of indigo can become little tendrils reaching up onto a shore. #calmingart #calmcolors #organiclines #naturalpigments #shadowshapes

I’ve spoken a little bit previously about how I am now using my pigments to create oracle cards and then using the cards to inform how colours are added to my paintings thereby investing them with residual meaning from the reading. Cards offering sunflower carbon and petal infused water, for example, gave a recent piece deep connection to ideas of community and connection that I see as a big part of the sunflowers’ role as an anchor in my garden’s ecosystem. I also love how they seem to diffuse the sun’s energy to all those around them! Giving paintings meaning like this has caused me to revisit what is created by these invested colours- namely abstract organic lines that create what I’ve taken to calling ‘dreamscapes’. What is the relationship of an abstract set of markings but which are intended to and clearly do hold references to landscape? I notice my intuitive combining of colours reflects the landscapes I’m in and the seasons I experience. I think this welcoming of unconscious and unseen mysterious forces is the key. In fact, it has been my goal for a long time to really learn to welcome what I can’t directly see or understand and to loosen the urge to control and, instead, be aware of being in the flow of mighty currents. I find myself wondering if the grasses and plants that grow in flowing water realise what is around them? I like imagining the perspective of seaweed swaying in the tides- sometimes I can almost feel mystery around me just like those tides and it’s always good to remind myself to look for it again if I lose the sense of it and how it holds us all. #organiclines #abstractart #dreamscapes #abstractlandscape #colormeanings #symbolicart

Autumn is definitely the peak of my squirrel brain time and I smile a little smile of recognition every time I see our resident squirrels dashing wildly this way and that- paws full of sunflower heads and bits of fallen apple and, of course, acorns. I feel like I’m also dashing here and there from idea to idea. It can be a lot of fun but there is often a sense of mild panic. I worry that ideas are going to get away from me or that I’m not sure which ones are really the tastiest and to be stashed away for future sustenance. Which ideas will be the most nourishing? Currently I am juggling experiments making ink blot type shapes out of words folded on themselves, animal spirits manifesting in different ways and the beginning of some oracle cards, all while trying not to neglect my lovely mycelium. Phew! Yup, I am a busy squirrel! #newprojects #wip #earthpigments #mycelium #inkblots #foragedcolor

Diving further into oracle reading paintings and this time the word that kept coming through from the symbols that were popping up was connection. I wrote a long post with all the details that will be going up this afternoon on the stack but the short story is that I was guided by my cards to work with both carbon and infused water from sunflowers. The thought that kept coming through from the card layout and these beautiful flowers was all about their deeply entwined place within the world of insects, soil, weather and other animals. They feel like great teachers of how to spread vital energy into a whole community. Sunflowers are obviously pretty great but I feel them so much more deeply now. Now to sit with the painting that is taking shape and see how it speaks to me about connection and think about how I can implement these wonderful lessons learned from the flowers! #oraclepainting #dreamscape #earthpigments #spellboundbycolour #sunflowers #carbon #abstractlandscape #landscapepainting

The moon, a bubble, a planet? This circle of oyster mushroom mycelium grown on hemp chip is all of these things and the endless symbolism of the circle never fails to delight me. I will be doing my next oracle painting - where I use cards to show me which relationships the pigments should have on the canvas and also follow the thought paths those relationships show me- on this grown surface. I love the archeological nature of these layers upon layers of meaning and all these elements collaborating together. It’s got me thinking more generally of how biased the human narrative has ended up being against the soft, the fleeting and the changeable. We favour the durable, the knowable and the things that seem permanent but, of course, are not. I love that people are beginning to see the beauty in mushrooms and other bio materials and hope that maybe if we start to celebrate impermanence we will find more ways to be both humble and in awe of our own soft and fleeting selves. #layeredpainting #layersofmeaning #biomaterials #circlepainting #earthpigments #symbolicpainting #mycelium #oracelpainting #oracle

The sense of being on the cusp of things is strong and I always find myself wondering at this time of year how much of it is changes in the light and other signs in nature and how much of it is all the human bustle that kicks into action as summer draws to a close. My wondering doesn’t stop me from being caught up in the activity though and I’m enjoying sending paintings off to new homes- particularly those that are available on my website. Big thanks to those who have had a look! I’m also getting started writing more over on the stack and will share more on that soon but am slowly finding some of you over there although let me know if i haven’t found you yet! And finally, of course, we are entering peak fungi season so I am focusing on new work with my mycelium that I can’t wait to show. #changeofseason #naturalpigments #landscapepainting #paintingforsale #bluepainting #deepblue #foragedcolour

Back from a late August camping trip in the Colorado mountains and I’ve been bustling around the studio. I’ve been shooing the grasshoppers that keep hopping inside off the paintings and trying to get everything ready on my website for Thursday’s upload of pieces for a studio sale. I think I’m much more of a forager by nature and my own little version of the harvest can feel a bit out of my usual rhythm but it is always so interesting to finally see all the pieces properly displayed and in dialogue with each other. As always, I feel they have very diverse moods but are brought together in harmony by the palette of collected earth pigments and plant inks that seems to always flow into their own landscape of colours. #studiosale #landscapeart #animalpaintings #crayfish #crawfish #lobster #artforsale #earthpigments #abstractlandscape

I love how the community of people I follow here on insta makes magic by using a platform that can be totally sterile to celebrate the seasons and nature in the most beautiful and diverse ways. August is definitely the season of the harvest but that can feel like a very abstract concept in my urban environment and the dramatic back and forths of the weather can further throw off a feeling of easily rolling with the seasons. But I am getting a little better at not dismissing those little undercurrents of feeling and instead sitting with them and seeing what they have to say. So far, they have led me to a plan to play around with this listening and dialogue by really defining how I collaborate with materials through a ritualised process using my colours on oracle cards. This has, in turn, led to an interesting new way of looking at the work I’ve created for the last 6 months which was leading up to this. I see so many hints now, so many characters and personalities who I am excited to talk to but who were just diving among the waves of other thoughts and forms in my less structured process. I’m looking forward to my harvest of this work though and it feels like a bountiful one. I hardly ever have enough work in the studio to make it available on my website but I have painted rather copiously so far this year and am aiming to have various landscape, animal and abstract pieces up on the 29th of August. More details to come! #creativeharvest #earthpigments #ecoart #landscapeart #landscapepaintings #animalpaintings

I’m getting signs from every direction that a turn of seasons is upon us although the rush to the end of summer and into the productivity of harvest and Autumn is always a bit bittersweet. I can’t deny that I get caught up in it all though and even changes in more personal spheres and closer to home seem to be signalling loud and clear that there are new paths to be followed, leaps to be made. My home’s laundry nook is warm and dark and full of mycelium growing into shapes almost too beautiful to do anything but frame- one of which is pictured in the second image- and so soft I can get lost running my finger tips over them but I’m still sure there is a way for them collaborate with my earth pigments in a way that will enhance them both. What I’m feeling though is that I need to stop imposing elements of my painting style that I’m holding onto but that may not serve this project. The first image above felt like a lesson in this sort of letting go. I love the image that has soaked right through the canvas and onto the studio floor but now it has to be part of the studio, there is no point trying to hold onto it. Usually I paint on the earth and any excess chalks and pigments return to the soil but hard rain and wind drove me into the studio for this one and gave me a chance to ponder on how ephemeral human activities are even when we want to think of them as being permanent, monumental or for posterity. It’s hard to fully accept this truth but I think there is a freedom in it that will serve me well on the new creative paths that are calling me. #fragments #chalk #ecoart #bioart #mycelium #earthpigments #newseason

Summer definitely has a duality of being a season of rest but also a season buzzing with activity. Every time I step outside the ground literally moves in front of me as insects disperse in every direction and the air hums with wings journeying from flower to flower. I am definitely being called to rest in the late afternoons when the heat has lulled every cell in my body into a hazy sort of trance. But in the fresh mornings, I have been experimenting with oyster mushroom mycelium again. I’ve had results I’m liking with sheets of mycelium vellum like this one- pictured in dialogue with the morning shadows. I’m also gathering pieces that have been coming together since Spring with the idea of finally having pieces for sale directly on my website so I’m working hard to get the site looking lovely and am feeling surprised as I take stock in the studio by how many animals I’ve painted without really thinking about it- it’s funny how the subconscious has its own ideas about things sometimes! #summer #mycelium #earthpigments #foragedcolor #mountainpainting #bioart

Summer is definitely the season that seems most multifaceted in terms of personality. Warm and nurturing tips into extremes of heat and thunder in an instant. A personal project has been incubating over the last few weeks of trying to invite domestic spirits to reinhabit or make themselves felt in our little 1950s ranch house that feels to me like a place that doesn’t have much spirit. Partly it’s about me visualising what connects this home to this place and partly it’s acknowledging that there is, without a doubt, energy here that is not mine but that dialogues with my own in complex ways. I’m being bolstered by the abundance of color and light that comes through in the deep blue skies of summer nights and stormy afternoons that I glimpse through the kitchen window that looks off in the direction of the mountains. The fact that the house is surrounded by a wall of sound and movement from the grasshoppers and crickets that react so vocally to those deep skies gives me hope that there is more than enough energy in the ground under this house to make my project possible. #stormysky #stormenergy #deepblue #earthpigments #indigo #nightskypainting #landscapepainting #summernight

So here it is- my first reel! Not very elegant but hopefully it shows some of the ritual process I’m using to structure and think about how I create my paintings at the moment which sort of weaves fortune telling into the story arc of each piece. For those who, like me, struggle to follow text that pops up over moving images, the stages are writing out a question, using cards painted with my foraged pigments to do a simple tarot reading, turning the reading into a text/poem and painting it onto the canvas and, finally, adding my base layer of pigments over the words in the order that the pigments on the cards were revealed. #naturalpigments #foragedcolor #fortunetelling #painting #artritual #abstractlandscape

I’m making a little headway on a video to show some of my process but I’m also being reminded that straightforward and direct aren’t usually my style and trying to figure out how to get in all the little details without creating a 20 minute film is proving tricky. In the meantime, i’ve been so enjoying really focusing on the beauty of water lines where different layers of water and pigment react. One fun snippet is that the water i use always has a symbolic purpose. It is either snow or rain- often directly falling onto a piece- or it will have been through a sort of ‘tea ceremony’. This means it is either made into actual tea and shared with the kombucha cellulose producing organisms that have become my trusted collaborators, or steeped with a plant or herb whose meaning and symbolism then becomes part of the story arc of the painting. #symbolisminpainting #process #waterlines #abstractlandscape #foragedcolor #naturalpigments #paintingasspellwork

I felt the urge to do a larger painting which brings with it a different scale of movement and even more layers. This painting is archeological. Full of evolutions and overlays of colour, of meaning and of mood. As I worked on it, both my intentions and the influence of the movements of the pigments and the working environment changed like weather. The actual weather changed- it was exposed to rain, to smoke and to blistering sun. Its base layer is a poem, the clouds drift over a symbolic sun cross and red ochre is added at the horizon line for its symbolism and energy. I’m finally thinking I should look at making a reel to show all these layers. Yup, any minute now… #layers #abstractpainting #symboliclandscape #earthcolors #bigpainting #hiddensymbolism #archeology

Three mycelium pieces on their way to becoming a triptych. I feel like I’m finally familiar enough with working with these painting surfaces to be able to really engage with the flow of my foraged earth pigments across the surface. These panels are produced by allowing the rooting portion of mushrooms (mycelium) to wind its threads through a mix of saw dust and waste paper pulp while contained in a mold and they certainly have a different feel to canvas or wood. They are soft and absorbent like vellum but surprisingly strong and a wonderful reminder that even in the materials we most take for granted, there are elements of pure magic when we remember to look. These panels were also a fun challenge to engage with more local materials with the mushrooms which produced the mycelium coming from Denver’s Jacob’s Mushrooms which were purchased from local grocer @pinemelon_market and fed on the very paper grocery bag they came in! #myceliumart #localmaterials #earthpigments #abstractlandscapepainting #tryptychpainting #coloradoart #mycelieum #landscapepainting

This painting has stayed with me in the studio for a long time. In its companionship, I’ve often thought it had things to tell me about creating balance with organic shapes and the emotional charge of certain types of landscape. Somehow, the storms of summer have made me feel like those ideas are being mirrored so beautifully in the world around me, that this little portal is ready to join a batch en route to Norfolk’s wonderful @make.holt where it will join the work of many other talented makers and artists. It is a special place to visit but their website is also a treasure trove! #northnorfolk #makeholt #dreamscape #naturalpigment #portal #circlepainting #earthpigments #holtnorfolk

It’s always funny how once you start thinking about something it pops up everywhere. A few weeks of muttering to myself about the word line and suddenly I notice it in so many conversations! It’s definitely the key element every time I return to my paintings in progress at the moment. Pattern, texture and ritual all keep trying to edge into the dialogue but, for now, it’s all about line- we’ll see where it goes! #horizonline #ridge #line #silhouette #painting #landscapepainting #earthpigments

There’s nothing like the warp speed of modern travel and the floaty, dissociated feelings I often experience on landing to get me thinking about place. In fairness, everything gets me thinking about place, but travel certainly reawakens forgotten perspectives and tucked away questions. How fundamental is the actual earth beneath our feet to our sense of place now that we pay it so little attention? If we are reconnecting with place and directing our attention, how should we feel about the built environment around us that so often separates us from actual soil- from the dirty and uncomfortable around us? Should we travel to somewhere more ‘natural’ to contemplate a less spoiled space and reap its benefits on our well being? This work in progress painting uses a lot of rust from scraps of the built environment that is much more of my everyday than any natural place. My glimpses of horizon and sky usually come with a sliver of building that I edit out so as not to spoil the scene. I don’t know the answers to the questions above but they certainly give me plenty to think about. #mountainscape #indigo #rust #landscapepainting #wip #horizon #environment #senseofplace

We’ve been traveling to visit family and friends these last couple of weeks and also reuniting with the wonderful awe inspiring sight of the sea. Back in the studio, I’m looking afresh at seascapes from dream memory and appreciating them as the love letters to water that they are even when their real life subject is always too fluid to capture. #seascapes #seapainting #naturalpigments #horizon #earthpigments #indigo #landscapepainting

Late spring snows and full moons have provided some incredible luminous night skies lately. These large scale displays of natural elements combining in unusual ways certainly jolt me into remembering the complex magic all around me but these interplays can be found at every scale from the bubbles in a glass of water to the patterns of fallen blossom in puddles. Both the beauty and the horror in this world can become mundane but it feels so important to witness both. #brightnight #landscapepainting #fullmoonsky #nightskyart #moonart #earthpigments #chalk #indigo #themoontarot

Rocks become pigment, pigment becomes paint, paint becomes words, words become the colours of the rock in this painting of mountaintop and sky. We are our environment. Our environment is us. All of life moves in these interconnected ways with their own kind of flow and their own kind of magic. Third image is the interplay of seeds, bones, messy tables and art ‘leftovers’ becoming their own ‘environment’ #interconnected #earthpigments #cycles #environment #landscapeart #mountainpainting

Back to the complex simplicity of just the horizon line in this painting. Where does the water really meet the air and, with their constant reciprocal relationship, do they really have a point where one ends and the other begins? The same can really be said for everything and it is fun to think about how our perceptions of the world change when we realize how loose all our definitions and boundaries really are. Still working on how I want to include my objects and ‘witch ladders’ on this one- but I know the spirit of the symbols and narratives we lay over our experiences is there already… #earthpigments #seascape #horizon #stormysky #landscapepainting #airandwater #seapainting

It occurred to me the other day that it is interesting that I feel that the materials used for a work definitely affect its meaning but I have also always been happy to have a great deal of symbolism hidden under layers of colour and texture. I’m starting to wonder if allowing those symbols and meanings and intentions to take more of a center stage would be a fruitful path to explore. I am always rather in love with the simple, poignant and easily recognisable shapes that occur again and again in ancient human visual expressions across cultures. In the same way I am exploring the meanings of the horizon line, I am feeling a call to explore the vertical cross line. In this image, I’m letting my personal version of a witches ladder bisect the horizon creating a cross. I’m playing with elemental expressions of earth and air through bone, carbon and feathers and wings. I think I’ll continue to play around with the string ladder element and I love that it can change its placement allowing paintings to become interactive sculptures! #ancientsymbols #elemental #earthpigments #horizonpainting #landscapepainting #materials

For my art practice local materials are an important consideration. I also am really interested in materials that use what might otherwise be waste, particularly food waste since eating isn’t optional! I have previously used casein from milk, mycelium from scrap mushrooms and excess scoby cellulose from making tea kombucha. Sometimes thinking about these things comes in from strange angles. Now that we are spending time in Denver in the US as well as Norfolk in the UK, I am having to navigate a very different landscape in terms of the materials I use. Norfolk has incredible earth pigments but also the most wonderful sort of artisan, experimental agricultural scene and I got very spoiled there being able to visit dairy farms and collect mushrooms both of which require some significant travel to do in Denver. But, here in Denver I have found a sort of online farmers market/ grocer called @pinemelon_market and, with them, I have a new material stream that I’m trying to integrate into my work. I love that they have locally grown mushrooms and milk from a welfare first dairy called Five Freedoms but they also bring everything in brown paper bags and cartons that seem ripe with possibilities. So I’m back at it with the mushrooms and the kombucha scoby but now I’m trying to see if I can feed them on papier mache from my grocery packaging. Which is a super long winded way of introducing this little paper mache and mycelium and eggshell white bird! #denver #coloradofood #pinemelon #denverfood #earthpigments #mycelieum #upcycling #birdart #lovepinemelon

Looking for signs of Spring in an urban environment is all about tiny details and feeling undercurrents. This painting definitely has that feeling of light pushing up and flowing water that I am sensing around me at the moment. Looking forward to longer, lighter days to bring the energy needed to keep looking for ways to support positive change and renew the spirit. #springenergy #abstractlandscape #landscapepainting #seascape #naturalpigments #indigo #flowingwater

A trio of horizons. I’m a bit obsessed with horizons both in my painting practice and in real life. I fought against that love for a while as being too cliched and obvious but the pleasure the horizon line brings me did not diminish from my self critism. Eventually, I began to see the line as part of incredibly potent group of symbols that seem simple at first glace- the circle, the hand print, the x, the straight line. It is exactly their simplicity that has allowed them to move through human history being part of the tapestry of so many stories, recognised instantly deep in the ancient parts of our brain and heaped upon with layer upon layer of meaning. In fact, they are some of the most complex symbols we have. Since I have begun to see my painted horizons this way, I have begun to feel I can truly fall into them, interact with them and explore them. As is so often the case, the simplest thing is the most crucial. #simplicity #horizon #earthpigments #abstractlandscapepainting #landscapepainting #circlepainting #symbols

This painting was inspired by those tough, thorny plants that survive in the harshest of conditions and surprise with their sculptural forms and unusual colours. As Spring shoots start to peek through, I am visited by my annual amazement at how life pushes on. That desire for life is the animating magic that creates our world. #seaholly #abstractart #landscapepainting #earthpigments #thorns #ochre #indigo

There’s a bear under the mountain and words in the sky. My paintings are always deeply layered. It’s my way of investigating the traces every life leaves, the archeology under every seemingly trivial thing. A way of acknowledging the unseen and the unintended consequences. In moments like the present when the world seems so disordered and full of horror, it seems more necessary than ever to confront complexity and to question the small decisions that have led to current paths. Wrong incentives in small spheres can contribute to wrong incentives in big spheres and the other way around. This feels like an interesting online space to start thinking about wrong incentives… #artisticarcheology #layeredpainting #earthpigments #artinvestigation #animalart #bearpainting #bear

Exploring edges as a property of materials and how we think about edges as showing the worth (maybe actually the potential to be commodified) of a thing. Gold and mycelium. Both with ancient relationships to human evolution and story but what is their relationship to each other? How do they change each other and how do material relationships change a maker? #materialrelationships #biomaterials #earthpigments #handmadepaint #bioart #mycelieum #gold

Edges are an interesting counterpoint to ideas of navigation. How do we continue or border what seems to be the end of a path or narrative? Particularly when the edges are less than clear. Are unfinished spaces an oversight or an invitation to add, to explore further? Not an end at all but the space where a dialogue begins… #edges #abstractlandscape #painting #indigoblue #aurora #paintedsky #rawedge #dialogue

From collaborating with snow to sun and back to snow again with this one. The back and forth mirrors the weather here that is bringing dramatic winter skies as a backdrop to the sculptural forms of winter branches. As I was thinking how their shapes mirrored flowing water, I was drawn to the idea of creating branch shapes in the snow and allowing the created mini canyon to cradle the canvas. The relationships between stone, water and life forms gives me comfort in its total unfathomable complexity! #snowart #organiclines #earthpigments #abstractlandscapes #winterart #flowinglines

After a week of explorations where I’ve been interacting and collaborating with the snow, I enjoyed how this work interacted with the sun. In the second image, the sun gave an amazing glow and changed all the colours as it shown through. The duality of the sun and snow really feels like a defining feature of the winter here and certainly keeps the unpredictability of the weather and the force with which it changes our experience of the world, in the forefront of my attention. #wintersun #winterart #abstractlandscapepainting #naturalpigments #circlepainting #earthcolors #attention

A weekend of winter whites inside and outside. While the snow kept falling, I spent time preparing and working with mycelium surfaces grown on either hemp chip or upcycled paper. The mycelium is so soft like suede. It was very soothing to run my fingers over while watching the flakes fall. #winterwhite #mycelium #earthpigments #paintingsurfaces #winterart #abstractlandscapepainting

Winter lines. Breaks in the weather have provided enough sunlight powered energy for me to head out on some long walks recently that have had me thinking about paths even more than usual. That one word, path, is so rich in meanings. So full of the joy of possibility and the heartbreak of wrong turns. So indicative of our linear perspective and of the unstoppable forward motion of human lives. I’m sure the helplessness that I, like so many, feel in the face of current world events explains it, but my fascination with the navigation tools of paths and with beings, like horses and deer, who inspire or accompany our migrations grows each day. Perhaps I’m hoping to find a magic compass to ease my own questions or just trying to realise more strongly the kinship of those who walk together. #winterlines #foragedpigments #wintercolors #paths #artofwalking #abstractlandscapes #wintersky

It’s true of everything in life but the layers beneath are what give structure and meaning. I feel this every time I collect an earth color - noting how the surroundings show hints of the ancient interactions that created the colors of our world. In my work there are always so many layers but the photos I post here often don’t show the smaller details like the chalk base, the changes caused by my handmade kombucha cellulose binder or, indeed, the scraps of poetry that often inhabit the sides or backs of my paintings- swipe to see some. It’s a tribute to the mind boggling complexity of the world that can be so overwhelming and sometimes frightening but is also the source of mystery and beauty. #layersofmeaning #layersofcolor #artandpoetry #circlepainting #geology #earthpigments #abstractpainting #abstractlandscape

Lots of threads are coming together in my pieces at the moment. In particular, aspects of walking and collecting that were always in the background but are now distilled into a process of collecting a branch or vine and using its beautiful, organic line as the foundation for a dreamscape/landscape. This is then combined with paths, retreads and horizons in ink and paint made of foraged soil and organic materials. It creates a mix of lines and perspectives which speaks to the ways we walk, explore, navigate and create well trodden routes. A winter palette of chalk, indigo and oak gall ink that is snow, sea and sky all at once is also anchoring me in the season and allowing the contrast of the lines to sing. #foragedcolour #winterlandscapepainting #artofwalking #organiclines #winterpainting #abstractlandscape #earthcolors

There's snow on the ground and a thick blanket of cloud promises more flurries. Everyone in our house has a cold and we are all deep in the quiet of January. But so much quiet time leaves room for big thoughts, for melancholy, for joy- to really sit with feelings and see them come and go. I've been thinking a lot about the nature of making vs destroying. One is the hard uphill and one is the fast run downhill but humans continue to do both with some kind of unstoppable drive. The energy to make can become so worn down by how easy the destruction seems but it is amazing how resilient the urge can be. These paintings both owe much to this golden ochre collected from a roadworks site. What does the iron that flows through this soil think of the project I have co opted it into? What does iron think as it becomes a colour, a weapon, a tool? If only we could all see ourselves from the perspective of rocks, earth and soils. #rocksareslowlife #earthpigments #foragedcolours #dreamscapes #landscapeart #horizons #earthcolors

Here, at the end of another strange year, I’ve gathered these items that sum up what keeps me afloat- awe. I’m still totally in awe of the elements I work with. The pattern in this painting is totally the work of water meeting wood. Indigo itself is a truly astounding alchemy and the variety of colours and textures I find in earth pigments never fails to amaze me. Then, of course, is the inspiration that comes from the natural world around me. Patterns, forms and textures without end. And part of that natural world is all of us. Humans can bring me such sadness but also the most incredible delight through love, creativity and ingenuity. Wishing all my humans here- those that make up this creative community that brings me much hope and happiness- a Happy New Year! #organicshapes #earthpigments #winterart #indigo #abstractlandscapepainting #abstractpainting #inspiredbynature #dreamscape #wintershadows

A post before I go into full holiday mode to wish you all very happy Winter celebrations! This painting is still a work in progress but I expect it will be one I sit with while welcoming the coming year. The pigment flows offer me a meditation on the circular movement of energy from earth toward sky and returned through water. The world can feel very stuck in circles of negative energy these days but there is a hope inside me that the more of us who notice and appreciate the beauty around us can change that flow a little by adding our drops of feelings of awe and humbleness to the stream. #circularenergy #wintercolors #abstractart #seascape #earthpigments #handmadepaint #flow

It’s the season for snow painting here and I’ve been enjoying using the microlandscapes of the valleys and peaks of snow to create flow lines across the canvas. Once inside, my collaboration with winter interacts further with the seasons short days and dramatic shadows. #snowpainting #seasonalart #earthpigments #naturalart #abstractlandscape #handmadepigments #gallink #snowpainting

The long shadows and stark shapes of leafless branches and bare rock make late Autumn and Winter a very particular time in my painting practice. Among the brown and grey landscape, certain colours seem to pop, the reflection of the sky can take on a new vibrance and light shining through darker shadows seems particularly magical. This painting feels very much like a product of that particular light and of the noticings that come with the season. #wintercolours #seasonalpractice #earthcolours #winterlandscape #landscapepainting #minimalistart caption...

This painting seemed to me to speak to an Autumn beset by dark clouds in my little corner of the world and in the world more widely. Illnesses in my family are mine to ponder and philosophise about but I am always reluctant to share too many thoughts about the anxiety and sadness brought on by world events. My own way of balancing the amount of angry that is necessary; calling for change but understanding that speaking up and sharing beauty is often all I can do, is constantly in flux. But nature helps, art helps and my feeling that engagement, attention and beauty are powers that can bring change in their own way remain. I paint with earth, observe how fire transforms objects and gather seeds. I know that seasons change and that movement, creation and destruction are the energy of everything. #stormysky #earthpigments #landscapeart #darkclouds

Happy Halloween! It seemed an appropriate day to show some of the items I’m looking to work into a more installation type display of my paintings. The bones were collected during mountain hikes this summer and the sunflowers were carbonised at our first Autumn bonfire. #ritualobjects #halloweenart #abstractpainting #earthpigments #autumnshadows

I’ve been sitting with this painting in different spaces- indoors and out. I’ve been watching it change as the light changes here and Autumn sun prepares to give way to snow flurries. I can’t quite decide where it wants to go or if it wants to go anywhere. The minimalist and the maximalist in me are definitely having it out over this one! #indigo #earthpigments #organicpatterns #abstractlandscape #landscapepainting #minimalistvsmaximalist

Something I actually love about this platform is seeing the feeds I follow fill up with reminders of the season like autumn leaves and delicate webs and autumn light. I have noticed that every year I'm also drawn to the long shadows and have the pleasure of seeing their interplay with all the elements of my studio including pieces both finished and in progress. This year is no different and, as I've been repainting the walls of my workspace in preparation for creating object installations around my painting work, the white walls for the shadows to play on has had a wonderful minimalist drama. #autumnlight #earthpigments #naturalshapes #organiclines #abstractpainting #abstractlandscapepainting #landscapepainting

I’ve been very excited to get pieces ready for the ForNature show at @artspace_woodbridge from the 19th-25th October where my paintings will again join pieces by @a_whisper_of_birdsong , @maria.botanicalbeing and @the.fable.key . The energy that comes from sending pieces off knowing they’ll be part of such a gorgeous group show has also been providing inspiration to work with the piles of mycelium, scoby and other natural treasures that have been calling me to create objects from them now that they have more space in the studio. @for.nature.art #suffolkexhibition #groupshow #natureinspiredart #mycelieum #texture #ukartists #fornature

Feel like this is a time where I’m working on synthesis and balance. For a long time, I tried to keep my practice focused on pigment textures and landscapes to avoid being dragged all over the place by my easily distracted, magpie like brain. But I’m feeling like some things- object making, incorporating text and animal shapes to name a few- have hung around long enough to earn a warmer welcome. So here’s to seeing how they all work together! #wolfpainting #earthpigments #ochre #animalpainting #foragedcolor #mountainscape

It’s always a happy mystery to me how earth pigments seem to effortlessly capture the essence of light although at some deep level it makes perfect sense to me. This particular yellow ochre, gathered at a roadside construction site, tells so many ancient stories that sit beneath the frenzy of human activity. #earthpigments #ancientstories #landscapepainting #abstractlandscape #horizon #autumnlight #ochre

Minis and mycelium paintings! Getting ready for a busy end of September that will include sending work off to @make.holt and preparing for the annual group show with the wonderful artists of @for.nature.art in Woodbridge, Suffolk. I've also started work on a long held goal to keep some pieces in stock on my website and will be updating that space soon in a way that reflects the many experiments that have been starting to come together over this summer. Busy but exciting times! #mycelieum #myceliumpaintings #mushroom paintings #miniature paintings #miniatures #earth pigments #indigo #artexhibition #seascapes #mountainpainting

The days are still so warm but the longer shadows and earlier evenings are unmistakable. This time of year always brings a dreamy, hazy feel to my imaginings and those long shadows are definitely coming through in my colour choices. #longshadows #autumnmood #changingseasons #norfolkbroads #waterscape #deepblue #indigo #earthpigments #landscapepainting #dreamscape

Gathering. Without a doubt it is the season for harvesting all the little thoughts and noticings that my foragers brain has been juggling during the summer months. Without any conscious plan things are starting to make connections and show me how to action them. Some will work and some not so much but I think I’ve started to gather a good haul to keep me nourished and busy in the colder months. #materialexperiments #earthpigments #mycelium #landscapeart #sculptualpainting #seasonalart #scobyart #harvestingideas

Ideas are finally coming together about how to bring together my landscape paintings with material and sculpture experiments that have been in the forefront lately. Currently juggling trying to design frames that will bring all the elements together like a magical cabinet of curiosities while also working on pieces for autumn shows and still experimenting with colour mixes. Busy last days of summer! #landscapepainting #materialexperiments #texture #earthpigments #foragedmaterials

The sunflowers here are bowed in the August heat but what a wonderful combining of necessity and practicality and poetry as they leave the sky full of pollinators and extend themselves toward the ground with their seeds. I'm feeling a bit bowed myself these days. Between the current heat and the looming sense that Autumn will bring a slightly overwhelming flurry of activity, I wonder how I can combine necessity and poetry. My solutions may not be as graceful as the sunflowers but they are inspiring me to look for ways nonetheless and inspiring me more directly with their wonderful crowned form which has been showing up in my mycelium and kombucha scoby based paper mache experiments. #sunflowers #papermache #mycelium #biophilia #scobycreations #earthpigments #naturalmaterials

Having feet in the water is an idea that is stuck in my head at the moment. Partly it’s for the obvious pleasure that the cool water brings. Also entering the water and being part of the landscape it flows around and contemplating its absolute interwoven being in every aspect of our world is both humbling and comforting. My paintings certainly couldn’t be created without the colours that come so magically from the soil and earth but they also couldn’t exist without the collaboration of water! #waterpainting #riverscape #earthpigments #foragedcolour #cranemigration #mountainpainting #coloradomountains

Some paintings find themselves in the studio for a long, long time. Waiting on the right detail, the right moment to feel finished. These two were both slow pieces that were worked on for many seasons but they’re ready to head to the lovely @make.holt now. Clearly they just wanted to make their Norfolk debut in the summer! Who can blame them?! #landscapepainting #earthpigments #seascape #coastaldesign #northnorfolk #naturaltextures

It feels like it’s been a summer of extremes, no doubt with the mood set by weather that swings from hail and flood to sweltering heat. Seeking a dry surface during a moment between storms gave an opportunity for a rare photo of me working. The sunflower forest behind our house is loving the rain though so I still take the mycelium paintings out to be among the wild growth. #earthpigments #mycelium #materials #naturallight #lightandshadow #organiclines #mushroomart #sunflowers

I’m making pieces trying to find the right balance between keeping the beauty of the mycelium bases I’ve been growing while allowing the earth pigments to be fully expressed in a painting. I’ve also been thinking back to my first painting on mycelium (second picture) and contrasting it with more minimal lines of recent pieces. The back and forth continues! So many dialogues with wonderful materials! #myceliumart #earthpigments #biomaterials #mycelium #minimalstyle #organiclines #balance

Two works in progress. Mycelium sculpting and painting are in parallel at the moment but I feel certain that if I keep giving them both loving attention that I will find a way to bring them together! #earthpigments #mycelium #myceliumsculpture #painting #seascape #seascapepainting

Enjoying the morning shadows and taking advantage of the few quiet moments to notice my newest mycelium panels next to finished works. I’ve been growing lots of panels and they are now soft and white and waiting for their introduction to earth pigment paints- always an exciting time! It has been a pleasure to send works on canvas from my previous post off to wonderful new homes too. The painting in the second image is still available. DM or contact me via my website for further info. #mycellium #growyourownart #earthpigments #foragedcolors #morningshadows #mountainpainting #landscapeart

I’ve titled this one Shaking off the Water and my practice and life definitely feel full of movement at the moment. So going further in the spirit of trying new things, I have decided to sell these 4 earth pigment paintings directly- UPDATE: images 1 & 2 SOLD-which might also hopefully be useful for those who don’t have access to my pieces in the UK as these ship from the US. They are 23x26 inches and currently unframed. They are priced at 140 dollars each unframed. DM if you’re interested or check out my website for larger images. #animalpainting #landscapepainting #earthpigments #paintingoncanvas #paintingforsale #forsalebyartist

Three portals to vast horizons are on their way to @make.holt where hopefully they will bring a little window of big skies and the boundless energy of the sea into their new homes. #circlepainting #seascapes #horizonpainting #earthpigments #foragedcolour #portal #bigskies

Still experimenting with animal forms- trying to sit quietly and listen to what they’re telling me about a direction to follow. As is often the case with flesh and blood animals though, once I’m giving them my attention, they become shy and elusive! #animalart #earthpigments #abstractlandscape #animalpaintings #wip #foragedcolor

I’m often entranced by how patterns and textures mirror and compliment each other within landscapes. Of course, there are very practical explanations such as camouflage or shared materials and chemical structures but I that doesn’t make it any less magic. In fact, the sheer complexity of it all may be the most magical thing I can think of! #magicofnature #pattern #earthpigments #soilpainting #landscapepainting

I’ve noticed animals making their way into my paintings recently like this horse who trotted in. I think I may welcome a few more! #animalart #horsepainting #abstractlandscape #earthpigments #mountainscape #foragedcolors #coloradoartist

Really noticing the evenings drawing out and bringing the magical deep blue skies of transitioning seasons. I enjoyed those late evening shadows a few days back while packing up new pieces that are now on their way to @make.holt and new light and shadows to play in. #earthpigments #circlepainting #horizonpainting #lightandshadow #springlight #naturalmaterials #landscapepainting

Even with a studio space coming together, the Spring sunshine has proved irresistible in calling me outside to paint. The feel of sunshine, of water and of pigments and soils on my hands is wonderful. #springsunshine #earthpigments #naturalcolours #painting #abstractartist #tactile #enpleinair

I sometimes describe my painting style as abstract landscapes and lately I've been thinking about where landscape ends and pieces are simply 'abstract'. It seems to me that my paintings are a bit like clouds that look like faces or birds in that it is mostly by chance. They are dream landscapes that have been born of random organic lines but perhaps guided by hands that have deep memories of the landscapes I love. But the horizon, the light of the sky seems to be so very deeply rooted in our human souls that a horizontal line will always summon it up- just like the name says! For me though, even those pieces that look totally abstract to many have the feel of micro landscapes to me- a tangle of branches, the shimmer of tide pools or even the interior landscapes of bones and cells inside bodies. It seems my lines between abstract and landscape are, indeed, as changeable as the shapes of clouds! #abstractart #abstractlandscape #earthpigment #circlepainting #organiclines #horizon #microlandscape #dreamscape

It wasn’t the plan but I have ended up with a space to actually set up a little studio! In what will hopefully be our final house move for at least a little while, some ideas we had for how to use the space didn’t work out. Happily my paintings and pigments have volunteered to move in! I’m looking forward to getting it all set up as Spring progresses. #springproject #happyaccident #paintingstudio #earthpigments #abstractpainting #abstractlandscapes

Unpacking from yet another house move and hoping to stay put a little longer this time! Unpacking allowed me to check in on a mini sheet of mycelium that’s been growing in honey water and some other material combining experiments though which is always exciting! #materialexperiments #bioart #naturalpigments #mycellium #earthcolours #mixedmaterials #ecopainting

Now that the snow has mostly melted over the last day or two, I realise that it was around for so long that my unconscious had gotten used to that white blanket and the uncovered leaves and earth are jumping out to my eyes with a symphony of shades of brown. Brown can be a deeply under appreciated colour and sometimes even is by me, but soil, wood and leaves will remind me of its beautiful potential every time! #resonantcolor #shadesofnature #horizon #noticingcolour #seascape #earthpigments #wintercolors

Packing up pieces today so they can wing their way into the world and thinking about the journey that soils take both in place and by human hands- such huge stories within a topic some would consider ‘boring dirt’! I’m looking forward to heading out afterward to bask and daydream in some much missed sunshine! Wishing you all a restful day full of stories and pondering. #soilstories #abstractpainting #foragedpigments #earthcolours #landscapepainting #dreamlandscape #circlepainting

Yesterday felt like Spring and today brought more snow. As the sun and ice trade back and forth, I notice seeds floating in the little melt streams onto patches of muddy ground ready for a warmer season. My paintings are still full of bright snow light but I started a new piece yesterday that seemed to be my own version of swirling water and curled seed. I don’t know where it’s going yet but I feel like it’s telling me that another foray into circles is on the way! #earthcolors #wip #snowlight #abstractpainting #circleart #landscapepainting #seasonalshift

Returning from a week visiting family and I’ve loved seeing the patterns that my pigments have settled in during their rest. It reminds me of talking to @maijaliepins about how pigments often mirror the landscapes they come from in our interview for the Dialogues with Nature network. The talk was recorded and should be available soon via @dialogueswithnature I was also overjoyed to return to exciting but not very photogenic experiments including growing mushroom mycelium sheets in honey water (it’s working!) and finding out kombucha scoby makes the best paint binder! #naturalmaterials #earthpigments #mycelium #materialexploration #earthcolors #organicpatterns

Just as thoughts turn hopefully toward ideas of Spring, the air here has warmed and softened and my palette seems to have gone with it. I’m also looking forward to talking with @maijaliepins tomorrow about my practice and projects at @dialogueswithnature which is all about giving attention to seasonal changes, environment and materials. #dialogueswithnature #springpalette #horizon #abstractlandscape #landscapepainting #earthcolours #softcolours

Snow paintings coming into being. I treasure my art practice as a time to give my full attention to the world around me and the gifts it offers in the form of inspiration and materials. At the moment snow, ice and melt are ready collaborators in creating water inspired landscapes along with my foraged earth pigments #abstractlandscape #snowpainting #naturalmaterials #earthpigments #foragedcolour #landscapepainting

Lots more snow here and there’s been such a glow and reflection from the white covered ground for so long that I think my eyes will need time to adjust when the world stops being illuminated and diffused! The dramatic contrast is certainly making itself felt in my painting and come the Spring I’ll definitely need to be hoping to cross paths with more chalk for paint making. #winterwhite #chalk #naturalpigments #contrast #abstractpainting #winterlandscapepainting #earthcolours #foragedpigments

Even when the winter weather and busy days mean less time spent outdoors, the dialogue with the world around me continues in watching shadow lines and noticing the colour of collected leaves echoed in found pigments despite their stories being from different places. Small wonders are all around. #smallwonders #earthcoulours #found #abstractlandscape #naturalpigments #echocolors #shadowlines #landscapepainting

There is definitely magic in the stillness of the landscape of lingering snow that we’re experiencing but I find the bracing air of the winter shoreline is also a wonderful addition to the season and hope I’ll find an opportunity to visit the sea soon. In the meantime, I’m considering how my paintings function as ‘mental landscapes’. I’ve always been intrigued by Rorschach and other visual portals to what’s going on inside so I’m keen to investigate that strand of my work further #internallandscape #earthpigments #horizon #seascape #visualportal #foragedcolour #ochres #wintersea

Happily, we had managed to get settled in our temporary new home just before a new snow storm turned the landscape white again. So I’m spending quiet days inside enjoying the relationships between my collected treasures and paintings waiting for the new year to make their way out into the world. Hope you’re enjoying the quiet days of winter too! #quietdays #organiclines #naturaltreasures #snowdays #naturalpigments #earthcolors #painting

Deep blue snow shadows work their way into my internal landscape and into the colours and pigments I feel drawn to converse with. Their deep colours speak of frozen stillnesses and offer reminders to slow down in what can be a joyful but busy season. #shadowcolours #winter #wintercolors #landscapepainting #conversationswithcolours #winterlandscape #soilart

It’s very hard to pack up your pigments when you can’t stop painting and your studio assistant keeps getting fur in everything! The recent dramatic weather system has brought such interesting light though that it keeps urging me to get my colours out. #snowlight #winterlight #pigments #earthcolours #wip #studiodog

We’ll be moving house again soon and I’ve been thinking about the possibility of having a separate working space. I actually think I’ve become so used to having my soils, pigments and paintings spread out in the middle of everything else that I’m doing, that it might be quite jarring to have it become something that lives and happens away from all the other domestic activities. So now I’m happily pondering art as a domestic activity- how it fits in with the daily rituals both beautiful and mundane. I’m also balancing table space between art and holiday decorating! I guess sometimes allowing life to just happen how it will can bring whole new ways of thinking about what we want! #artpractice #earthpigments #abstractlandscape #foragedcolour #mountainpainting #artandnature

It’s taken me a little while to figure out why I sometimes shy away from taking time to work on my painting surfaces but I’ve realized that it’s because when I’m not actively working with clay and soil pigments, I’m missing the fast paced back and forth that is the dialogue of painting with water and earth. Watching the flow, the mixing, the unexpected patterns and responding with adding new colours, turning the flow with a feather or finger- that’s a back and forth I love! So I’m making sure to keep working on paper while I work with surfaces and experiments so that I get the best of both! #materialdialogues #paintingonpaper #earthpigments #seascape #landscapepainting #process #pigments

Autumn always seems like a good season for the gathering in of projects so it’s very satisfying to see a variety of my earth pigment pieces finished and available at @make.holt and also on their website. Getting pieces from studio to being ready to go out into the world is always my biggest challenge! #creativeharvest #northnorfolk #landscapepainting #abstractlandscapes #earthpigments #foragedcolours #seascape #artforsale

Spending some extra time considering the whites, creams and other neutrals that often create sky or reflections in my paintings. As I hope to work more on mycelium in the coming months, I want to find ways to allow its white colour and soft texture to shine alongside the creamy loveliness of chalk which is always a favorite of mine. Pondering these relationships in white is actually surprisingly calming! #chalkwhite #contrasts #organiclines #abstractlandscapes #reflections #earthcolors #calming #landscapepainting

A recent trip to the UK saw me stuck with a US phone that didn't work there and meant an involuntary offline period. We've been back in Colorado a little while now but I've found it very hard to get back into the habit! I love seeing what creative things people are up to though, so I'm posting with hopes of getting back into the swing of things. I'm also keen to spend the upcoming months really experimenting with materials which often means fewer finished pieces to put a picture of or just me forgetting to take pictures of the process but my pre New Year resolution will be to do better with documenting and now I've said it out loud so hopefully I'll manage! While I was away, one of my favourite creatives and good friend @walkinglantern posted about international artists day and how it was a great chance to tag inspiring artists. I am overwhelmed by the number of inspiring artists I encounter here but the wonderful women from my recent exhibition definitely deserve a shout out. Thank you so much for the wonderful experience @nicolacoeajournal @maria.botanicalbeing @the.fable.key #inspiration #beintheseason #creativecommunity #materialexperiments #earthpigments #foraged #abstractpainting

So excited to be planning a visit to the gorgeous North Norfolk coast later this month. It inspires me no matter how far away I am but to actually get to take in the sounds, smells and colours is really something to look forward to! #northnorfolk #northnorfolkcoast #seascape #naturalpigments #earthcolours #abstractlandscape #landscapepainting

Cooler winds have been blowing in a new season and also strewing treasure around that I can resist collecting when out for walks. Here are a couple of small paintings inspired by these early Autumn finds #changingseasons #foraged #foragedcolor #earthpigments #abstractlandscapes #landscapepainting #paintingonwood #naturalinspiration #autumn

Coming into being… The last few Autumns seem to see me called to create on wood. I guess it always feels like a nice self contained like object as we move a little nearer to the season of gifting. These pieces are still in progress but already distinctly of the palette that comes from using earth pigments and full of their textures that bring me so much joy to work with. #wipart #paintingwithearth #organictextures #paintingonwood #earthpigments #foragedcolours

Opening up…opened. Think there’s some metaphor here about me trying to get back into the swing of things as Autumn brings back its usual flurry of activity and I’m still half way rolled up and lingering in summer! #changingseasons #earthpigments #abstractlandscape #rolledcanvas #stormysky #seascape #painting

The sun here is so strong and bright that it’s hard to think that soon the weather will be turning autumnal. That said, the brightness on the water at our local creek often gives a similar feel to the otherworldly white light that comes from the sun on winter snows so, in some ways, there’s always that reminder of seasons to come! #lightonwater #creekside #naturalpigments #earthcolours #foragedcolor #landscapepainting

The cold waters that flow down from the mountains have replaced the beloved waves of the North Sea this summer but what a wonderful opportunity it has been to see both landscapes from new perspectives! How their colors are brought together by symphonies of elements! #landscapepainting #earthpigments #foragedcolor #abstractpainting #landscape #naturalcolours

Trying to take some time out of busy schedules to breath in the last bits of summer and create compositions guided by the always stunning beauty of natural growth. #organiclines #branches #abstract #composition #foragedart #earthpigments