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Home > Natural Elements

Natural Elements

28th JUNE – 9thJULY 2010 

JEMIMA MITCHELL

Personal Statement

While I was a student at Bath Academy of Art in Corsham, Wiltshire, one of my tutors advised me to go out and draw the ‘gorgeous forms’ in the natural environment. I will always be grateful to him as these have been my inspiration ever since, sometimes stopping on a journey, or outside the school gate, to jot down the arresting outline of a hill or the way a tree curves against the sky.

Using clay in a variety of ways I have tried to communicate my love of the flow of forms and patterns in the landscape. The rugged coast around north Cornwall and St Ives is a constant source of inspiration to me on my frequent visits, as well as the gentle Carmarthenshire fans or peaks that I view from the small farm where I live.

Hand building, through coiling and moulding clay, the flasks and bowls I make echo the lines and curves of the land, an upland lake cupped by the enfolding hills or the sweeping sky enclosing the wide bay. A chapel or chimney sometimes stands out, but through the weathering of time blends into a harmonious whole.

I collect wood ash from our wood-burning stove to make my glazes, which adds a subtle richness to the colours and surface of my forms and helps to maintain the intimate connection I feel with the materials I use. Fired to stoneware temperature each piece is subject to great stress which can lead to an exciting unpredictability of results. It is that ‘extra component’ that I find both challenging and fulfilling.

GILLIAN FARRELL

Artists statement

My lifelong interest in plants and organic shapes and patterns is at the core of my creative work and I find constant inspiration in the natural world where I can interpret ideas in both a figurative and abstract way.

Living in St. Ives I am fortunate to have both the sea and the countryside within easy reach and I constantly collect "free" inspiration in the form of seedheads, skeleton leaves, pebbles, shells, bits of wood, berries, grasses and indeed anything which catches my eye as I pass by.

All these assemble at home where I can consider them in my own time and interpret them as the mood takes me.

I am continuing to work in mixed media which usually comprises paper, fabric, fleece and thread and I enjoy exploring the textural possibilities which I can create with these and other fibres.

As well as drawing in my sketchbooks, I use my sewing machine to "draw" with the needle in a very free and sometimes unpredictable way and the process compares with that of sketching, by finding the best line through a number of exploratory lines.

The surface I use can be built up first then stitch brings the final piece together.

The theme of Natural Elements is suggested by this involvement with so many different aspects of the natural world and all it has to offer.