abstract potential …

my latest acrylic/mixed media work (on watercolour board)… I’m still exploring the abstract potential of the industrial remains of the tin and copper mines between Land’s End and Cape Cornwall. Needs a title yet… 

I’m enjoying producing these and it feels like this one is getting closer to the abstracted colour and form I’m after… 

Cornwall mining abstract

Cornwall mining abstract. Mari French 2013

 

Hard to believe that I’ll be spending two uninterrupted weeks next year painting in the area, thanks to my recently awarded Artists Residency at Brison’s Veor.

Cornwall residency award …

I’m so pleased, today I got the news that I have been awarded an artist’s residency at Brison’s Veor, Cape Cornwall, for 2014!

A wonderful location, the house is the furthest west in England and situated right on the cliffs looking out to sea and the rocks that give the house its name. It has been run solely for creative residencies since the 1970s.

It’s also very close to the tin mining area I’ve recently been painting, which will be the main focus of my work whilst I’m there.
I’ll have it to myself for two weeks… two weeks of concentrating on painting, sketching, exploring. It will be my first residency.
Brison’s Veor

(images below are copyright http://www.brisonsveor.org.uk)

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the earth bleeds …

Regular followers of this blog may remember my previous posts describing visits to the tin mining area of Penwith, near Lands End in Cornwall and the almost alien industrial archaeology there. If not, you can check them out here, here and here.

Below are the two most recent mixed media artworks I’ve produced on this theme. Again I’m exploring my response to the red iron oxide covered ground, the bright turquoise verdigris leaching from the copper adits where they emerge from the sea cliffs below the mines, the stark finger-like stacks pointing skywards.

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Acrylic paint, tissue, acrylic ink and inktense blocks have all been used. The support was Daler watercolour board, which will take quite a lot of wet media if adequately taped down.

It’s an absolute joy to be an abstract artist and come across such rich source material…

I have to go back …

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