Likin’ a bit of lichen

Welcome back and ‘Hello, Autumn’ over here in the north of England. The trees are turning and the fires are on…

I’ve been busy with a few different things recently, but I’ve actually been able to get messy in the studio and it’s felt so good!

I’m working towards another ‘objects of attention’ house and fabric scroll as I’ve done for feathers and mussel shells which you can see in the gallery. This time, I’ve delved into my somewhat voluminous collection of lichen photos to mine for patterns and marks.

It’s so surprising to draw them and realise that something goes this way and not that, or that the wiggly structure always ended with two lobes and not one…

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Using my camera to take close-ups was a revelation.  I am familiar with lichen forms and textures but had no idea that the seemingly boring patches were so delicious!  What astonishing things they are, both visually and biologically.

With the other objects such as feathers, I was able to use them to print with to provide some focal elements. That wasn’t possible with lichens so I made some print bocks of slightly abstracted forms.

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Then to a bit of burning!…

These are all being torn up and layered with other fabrics, text and papers using encaustic medium. I’m just at the start of building the surface for the house and am hoping to start on the fabric scroll this week when we have everything crossed to get away for three nights. I’m very fortunate to be working from home every day at present but I’m starting to climb our four walls!

In other news, My art group is partnering with one of our local mills to produce some work for next June. You can read about our project for WOVEN in Kirklees