Alison Couchman
I was leafing through a number of books during the first lockdown and found myself particularly drawn to several photos that were all spheres. I decided to do a small series with the sphere being the linking factor. This piece is the first and is a magnified pollen grain based on 2 things – a macro photograph and a copyright-free line drawing. It is working out how to represent the texture that drives me to work on this.
I painted the base layer to plot out the colours and placement of the highs and lows. Next was the tricky puzzle of trying to create the high points in the image. This was done by cutting several layers of batting into a lattice work then adding some trapunto to the back to make it pop more.
I’m currently adding beads that I coloured with alcohol inks. I do this in fits and starts as it gets a bit dull after a while. Next will be adding shadows with paint and then attaching it to a canvas.
The second in the series will be based on the swirling colours and shapes on the surface of Jupiter.
Amanda Warren
For several years my creative pathway had been blocked; the desire to make progress was always there, but was hindered by long-planned changes and unexpected events. I responded to exhibition titles by finding something of interest relating to each one and making work that was relevant but which felt empty to me, and which took me nowhere in the longer term. I decided the answer might be to find a creative mentor, and for more than six months I have been working with Juliet Lockhart, an old friend and a self-employed artist, with the initial aim of developing a totally new body of work for exhibition.
With Juliet’s encouragement I revisited old interests and explored new ones, initially casting my net wide before narrowing my focus. Aided and abetted by lockdown and a recent house move, I settled into drawing and studying a small wood by the house, reading books such as ‘The Hidden Lives of Trees’ by Peter Wohlleben, ‘Oak Ash and Thorn’ by Peter Fiennes and ‘Uprooted: on the trail of the Green Man’ by Nina Lyon. I’ve always been an environmentalist and my mind was blown by what I learned about the society of trees and the ‘wood-wide-web’. A chance invitation to play with fabric paint in a socially distanced semi-outdoor setting (a garage!) gave impetus to the development of new work. I prepared stencils at home and spent several days generating spontaneous compositions around leafy themes. I hadn’t had such fun for years! I have spent the winter developing these, making trefoil and quatrefoil designs and producing felt pieces (including ‘Oak’ and ‘Thorn’) to add gravitas to the collection. The work goes on growing and developing, and all the time, at the back of my mind, is humanity’s need to engage with trees, and to appreciate and protect them for their sentience and longevity as well as for what they can do for us.