Studio 21 members: Ross Belton Paulene Cattle Susan Chapman Annette Cillonge Judy Drysdale Lisa Earley Jill Flower Anne Froggatt Linda Gleave Marion Glover Samantha Harvey Liz Heywood Denise Jones Debbie Lyddon Sandra Meech Mary Morris Amarjeet Nandhra Helen O’Leary Consuelo Simpson Dawn Thorne Anthea Vaal
Studio 21 Colour Blocks
Colour Notes Colour is ubiquitous. We perceive the colours of the world everyday and most of the time without much regard. At other times we are acutely aware of it’s hues, tints and intensity. During these moments colour makes a memorable connection. We might be moved by the play of light, the combinations of colour or the sheer concentration of colour. We note the visual sensations of colour and how it can communicate to us. The brief for the Colour Notes project was made as wide and flexible as possible to initiate discussions about colour that were personal and not theoretical. The project sought to tap into the rich seam of colour sensation, which would include the affective and draw attention to the link between colour and memory. The project title Colour Notes became a means of reflecting back on the significance of colour in the work - whether it was intentional or spontaneous. The project therefore asked, when, why and how do we use or choose colour and how does that choice correspond with our selection of materials? Looking through the collected statements in this catalogue, the group have made wide-ranging associations. Colour is referred to in the landscape: the cliffs, the coast, the urban environment and the topography of Africa. The very ‘stuff’ of colour, as the material pigment of the earth is explored as an indicator of place. Colour is variously described as stain, bleed, rich, exotic, vivid, clashing, surprising. It is mentioned as in movement, spatial and temporal, shifting with light changes, with day and night and with the seasons. It is also noted as capturing a moment of being in the world in a specific space and at a particular time. Most notably, colour is described as conjuring and materialising the immaterial: the emotional, personal experiences, memory. Colour is recounted as vibrating with energy and that it can uplift or it can soothe and calm the body. It can affect our moods. It is explained as helping to draw attention to our other senses, connecting to sound, touch, smell and taste. Colour is also referred
to as communicating an ever-changing cultural system of signs. It is noted as mapping family and community histories, as helping to negotiate ‘otherness’ and assimilation. Colour is explained as holding and conveying embedded cultural meanings, which prompt the question, can colour ever be ‘neutral’? For all the members of Studio 21, Colour Notes has been a searching and thought-provoking project because of its ‘open-endedness’ and our trusting in unknown outcomes. From the beginning it was hoped that something different and personally owned would emerge from the work. It involved looking beyond what might be expected from a project about colour. The books about colour theory were relegated to the background and we worked reflexively and intuitively. We hope you enjoy these careful and inquisitive responses. Denise Jones
Susan Chapman
About Studio 21 Studio 21 is a well-established group of Textile Artists that aims to challenge and support its members and to provide regular opportunities for exhibiting at a professional level, both nationally and internationally. The group was formed in 1997 to develop and extend innovative techniques and push the boundaries of traditional expectations in textile art and stitch. This continuing evolution is achieved through a structured program of workshops and critique sessions that members participate in at a monthly meeting in Chobham, Surrey. Many members undertake further personal research, studies and courses; often work as teachers, lecturers and are authors of books and magazine articles. Studio 21 aims to produce a new body of work for exhibition bi-annually and Colour Notes celebrates our 21st year by challenging each artist to express and interpret their own response to colour through narratives and memories. Each artist has chosen one image to represent their work in this booklet, indicative of their practice and expanded upon in the forthcoming exhibition.
Image opposite from top: Liz Heywood Ross Belton, Susan Chapman, Jill Flower.
Ross Belton Wedding Collar (after Mporro Engorio) My research has focused on the colours of Africa, the topographical landscape of my childhood and the traditional use of colour by the women of East Africa. The adornments they wear signify status and wealth, and refer to various periods in their lives. A piece can be read as a personal history, like a diary, the colours and patterns telling a story. I have incorporated these ideas into a new ‘artefact’ series, reimagining them in a contemporary way, the cage like structures commenting on the subjugation of women through marriage. As with previous works, I have used colours, materials and found objects special to me. Natural hand dyeing and rust printing form the foundations of my colour palette. Locally grown New Zealand flax, sea salvage, recycled cotton sheeting and silk all add texture and structure to the work. Key to my practice is the idea of place, recycling, sustainability and the use of local resources.
www.moderneccentrics.com
Paulene Cattle Night Tube My aim is to foreground overlooked colour combinations that form part of the everyday landscape. Singling out things we walk past every day without noticing. The backdrop to our daily lives; colour that is taken for granted but at a glance immediately signifies something specific. Research concentrated on the rich seam of the urban built environment. In this night scene the colours of neon signs are projected out of the surrounding darkness. A pieced and patched cloth has been created from various fabrics reminding us that colour in our surroundings is rarely flat or regular. Found objects collected at the location have been incorporated into the work. The visual experience is augmented by a sound-scape reflecting the surrounding environment, creating an impressive experience of a moment on a London street corner.
Susan Chapman Thoughts about Colour I regard colour as a tool of expression. In my work, all colours are used intuitively as appropriate to their meaning and each colour has equal importance for me in speaking to the audience. I am interested in the hidden language of colour that has been used throughout time to tell stories and inform the viewer. I believe there is a place for all colours and, as such, I don’t have a favourite colour, there is no colour I can’t bear to use, each has it’s place according to the message I am trying to impart. I have collected people’s notes about colour as part of my research for this exhibition, and have been constantly amazed by these comments. I have now bound these into a book because I think they are too important to just incorporate them into my collages as I had originally intended. Most of my visitors had strong opinions and reactions to particular colours, some had emotional stories, others vivid memories. I have also experimented by adding a strip of coloured fabric, randomly chosen, to a base fabric every day, proving, I think, that all colours ‘go’ together. This encourages the excitement and energy of colour, rather than an over-matched, controlled palette.
www.susanchapman.com
Annette Collinge Manor Farm Brick Colour is an integral part of my creative life. I work intuitively, letting colour, emerge from my imagination. I have no feelings that I must use one colour above all others, but my natural instinct is towards earth colours. I dislike bright yellow and cannot account for that. Similarly, I do not like green. Recently, I have become interested in the element of surprise, finding colour in unexpected places, especially in found objects in an unnatural environment. My scientific background led me to investigate whether it was a geometric shape on a random patch of gravel that attracted me or the colour. The conclusion was that it was both, but primarily the colour. For this exhibition, I am portraying landscape, using dyed blanket, hand embroidery and found materials, including barrier fencing and vegetable bags; which exemplifies my love of bright colour and harks back to a way of working that I find both exciting and pleasurable. My second piece is informed by an old farm in Norfolk, where the stable yard and associated derelict buildings provide rich examples of brightly coloured found objects in an unlikely environment. I am using digital print on fabric and embellishing with hand stitchery.
www.annettecollinge.com
Judy Drysdale Synapses Synapses describes my personal colour experiences and memories and references the process of how colours are seen and remembered. For me colour is about the cool blue-grey tones of a winter sky, a beautiful summer sunset with its warm glowing shades of reds and oranges, the dappled greens and blues of a Caribbean sea, the many hues of the garden flowers, the mottled terracotta roof tiles of an Italian village, the bright jewel like colours in a stained glass window. These colours appreciated by the eye, are transported through millions of electrical connections in the brain, synapses, enabling impulses to be transmitted to specific areas to be stored, ready for interpretation when recalled. It is easy, for example, to remember the colour of your first school uniform or your first car. Often, though, it is just fragments of fleeting colour memories that come to mind which have become interwoven and linked over the years. It is through these networks of fragments that I explore my colour experiences.
Lisa Earley Vanitas My recent work exploring plant life has led me to consider the place of momento mori in modern life. Having long admired the 17th Century Dutch Masters who specialized in depicting stylized floral portraiture, it became apparent that these were a fiction, an oil painted version of Photoshop, where different plant species from varying seasons jostled for prominence in the viewfinder. Referencing Annette Messager’s existential installations, my still life is a similar horticultural impossibility, with my specimens collected from holidays and bouquets over the last few years. Wild blooms from Devon rub stems with hot house bouquet exotics and an agapanthus from a Swedish palace. The assemblage considers an antidote to modern consumerism, where everything is available on demand, whilst acting as a reference to the original message; as a reminder of our own mortality. This reality, along with the healing potential of plants has been a subject for development and interest in my recent works; drawing parallels between modern life and the wisdom of ages past.
www.lisaearley.co.uk
Jill Flower Memories of AJ Colour dominates and permeates our lives and it is so important to both humans and animals alike, never more than in Africa. I spent my childhood in West Africa and having recently returned, I have rediscovered the vivid clashing colours and patterns of the local textiles, fashions and culture. On this journey, I found discarded shards of materials on the forest pathways and trapped on thorny bushes. Each piece would have had a previous life and use. They had been subjected to the searing sun and torrential equatorial rains and many were, no doubt, trodden underfoot by humans and wild animals. It fascinated me how these pieces of textiles were obviously abandoned and left to rot. With permission from AJ, my scout, I picked them up and once cleaned each fragile sliver became precious to me, a treasure and too valuable to be stored away; I set myself a challenge to reassemble each colourful gem and use every delicate scrap within this project. I feel each fragment layered together and embellished with hand-stitched patterns represents the heritage of this exotic part of Africa and it’s colourful people and gives a new life to these once unwanted fabrics.
www.jillflower.com
Anne Froggatt A Cumbrian Spectrum My response to colour lies in my observations in the Lake District. Colours can be gentle on the eye seen through cloud and mist, then the subtle greens of the hillsides ,the soft greys of the walls and the natural tones of the sheep are pleasing to the eye. However when the skies are blue and the lakes shimmer and the lush fields show their shades of green the colour picture is totally different. Adding the changing colours of the seasons to expand the palette I chose to depict these observations using the traditional, mainly northern, technique of hooking through hessian. A huge range of fabrics were used from silk to socks from wool to bin liners and were blended to create the effect I wanted. The shape of long Lakeland walls suggested to me how to express these colours.
Linda Gleave Before Dusk Falls I have always observed and been attracted to the play of light and colour in the sky, on the clouds and the sea or landscape below. Of particular interest are the changing hues that are created by light around sunset – often by the coast. The colour effects can change rapidly and be mesmerizing in their intensity and each visual experience of this is unique. I have endeavoured to capture the subtle changes and reflections at this time of the evening in the colours I have used to create a sense of a shifting scene in the shaping, cutting and layering of the fabrics. There can be a tranquillity about the end of the day just before the light fades that is calming and yet interesting and exciting at the same time, when suddenly the sky flares with intense colour as the sun finally sinks behind the horizon.
Marion Glover Music of the Hills Walking two miles each morning on the Malvern Hills, I found myself alerted to all the music, poetry and art which these ancient hills have inspired through millennia. As I walked I sang aloud, and Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt suite, particularly the ‘Morning’ movement, seemed to me to embody all the colours, music and the beauty of life. It filled me with joy. The large hanging piece endeavours to express the colours of this lyrical music rising through the air above these amazing hills.
The Malvern Hills are a mystical place, an ancient outcrop of granite providing many springs of the purest water. The second 3D work features the countless books of study, writing and learning which have emanated on these hills, with a reference to the world renowned medieval stained glass in the Priory, and supported by the water bearing rocks.
Samantha Harvey Pigment and Light I began this project knowing that colour or, more accurately, light has a profound effect on my emotions and is crucial to my art practice but soon realised that understanding and articulating this was not at all straight forward. Working with a colour diary I found I was recording contrasts and juxtapositions of colour – which is how I describe the way I use texture. What I discovered about myself through the diary was that colour makes me happy: different combinations – different lights – different shades. Unexpected moments of colour can change my mood dramatically. In particular, a rainbow of threads is irresistible; rich earth tones of rust and tannin help me feel grounded and light shining on or through any colour feels like magic. The pieces I have created celebrate these three vital aspects of colour. From now on, I will not be able to take colour and my use of it for granted.
www.samantha-harvey.com
Liz Heywood Colour Mapping Hengistbury Head I used colour mapping for the first part of Colour Notes. This led to carefully observing the different colours of the cliffs in Dorset where I often walk. These colours constantly change due to the time, season and weather conditions. So this work reflects just one single moment in time. The long, narrow hangings for the second part reflect the colour choices I have made in the last few years. Black, white and grey have been constantly used. Black and white complement each other and give a cohesive and dramatic feel to a body of work. The contrast between them is dramatic and appealing. Grey takes the middle ground and does not detract from the other two purer hues. Blue is a subjective choice since it reminds me of things I love, such as the blue of a cloudless sky and the sea. The last two colours reflect the work done on colour mapping of the Dorset cliffs. These are natural earth colours, yellow and ochre. The shapes used in the design to represent each colour are influenced by research on colour psychology and symbolism of colour.
Denise Jones Silence and Noise Since 2006 I have been studying hand embroidering as a material process and so my focus has always been on what is happening when I embroider rather than the use of colour. I think of colour as visual ‘noise’ that in some ways can obscure what is really going on so I use white materials to ‘silence’. I want to allow the materials and process to speak. Making embroidered cloths that have a visual silence is appealing as these cloths are always open to multiple interpretations. They hopefully summon the unsaid: memories of touching and feeling. In the silent white cloths I make, I hope the viewer finds a space for reflection, a quiet open space for thinking, dreaming. My two works for this exhibition are: Cloth of Dreams (2017) and Remembering, Retracing, Reworking (2018).
Debbie Lyddon Ground Cloth: Coil It is an ancient practice for artists to use earth as a colouring material. For centuries earth has been dug out of the ground, processed and mixed with binders to make paint. The works created for Colour Notes use materials that I have gathered from the landscape and processed in order to colour cloth. The materials, which come from beaches along the North Norfolk coast, are: chalk from West Runton, yellow ochre from West Runton and sea-coal from Wells-next-the-Sea. Sails and tarpaulins can be found everywhere on the coast and I take inspiration from how they are made and used. Traditionally, sails were made of canvas or linen; fabrics that degenerate quickly if not treated with a preservative. Sailors would protect and preserve sails by ‘dressing’ them with a mixture of linseed oil, wax and red ochre. I have finely ground the hand -gathered materials and mixed them with linseed oil, turpentine and beeswax to emulate the traditional waterproof ‘dressing’. The works in Colour Notes connect the materiality of the environment (the actual matter that landscape is made up of) with the utilitarian use of cloth in a coastal location.
www.debbielyddon.co.uk
Sandra Meech Marking Time As I travel through my local Somerset/Wiltshire landscape, the constant change of light and colour through the day and seasons, has been a constant inspiration. I have been recording lines and colour memories of my journeys on the A303 for the last year. The changes in ploughed field marks, the moving shadows of clouds across the huge vistas and the constantly changing crop colours, has informed these stitch paintings. From views of chalk hills, red soil, pastoral sheep to rape seed fields, I often record colour with a photograph. Bold shapes, lines and marks, are sketched on location. I am overwhelmed by the simple beauty in the distant hills, farm buildings and big skies. These pieces are from a sketchbook that shows the energy of the land using resist marks, drawings and watercolour dye paint. As an area rich in archaeological heritage, ordinance survey maps inform additional reference marks and these nine stitch paintings refer to the latitude and longitude of time and place. In the past a monochromatic palette has suited my themes, so what a joy it has been to explore strong colour again through paint and stitch.
www.sandrameech.com
Mary Morris Scutes 1 and 2 My work often takes the form of an archive or collection or is book-like in nature. However, this work, Scutes 1 and 2, started with a collection of family button boxes, tins and baskets. One basket was made from the skin of an armadillo, its tail held firmly in its mouth to form a handle, and the inside lined with soft purple silk. The memory of the feel of the hard, protective scales, or scutes, of this basket has accompanied me throughout the making of this work. Bringing back memories of childhood and time spent exploring their colourful depths, the sound and smells of old Bakelite, glass, wood, metal and plastic rustling against the sides of an aging toffee or biscuit tin and the feeling of them slipping through your fingers. The long, slow process of making this work allowed time for reflection, recollection and speculation. What possible stories could some of these buttons tell? While constructing the work, I have seen and handled such a mix of buttons, old and new, ornate and plain. I formed a particular liking for the simple, unpretentious buttons such as the ubiquitous fish-eye, that quietly do the job for which they were designed.
www.marymorris.co.uk
Amarjeet Nandhra My ‘Other’ Colours
The work created for Colour Notes is a contemporary response to the traditional embroidery technique of Phulkari, a practice deeply rooted in the Punjab region. Originally used to map family and community histories, Phulkari’s were intrinsically linked to ceremonial occasions, using specific colours and motifs to record the lives of the women who created them. This work maps my conscious and unconscious colour choices, within the last twenty years of my practice. Abandoning a rich colour palette with associations of a marginalised social position of ‘otherness’, whilst adopting the colour palette of assimilation of the dominant culture. From the vibrant , stunning colours that surrounded me whilst growing up; the myriad of unusual colour combinations , the clashing pinks, oranges , yellows and lime greens, all bringing a sense of joy, to the use of a more sombre and restricted colour palette of black, grey and white. It is a personal reflection on the struggle of mapping two cultures and navigating the complex notion of identity.
www.amarjeetnandhra.com
Helen O’Leary Balancing Act With my work generally being various shades of white textile, along with wire, often rusted, the idea of the Colour Project set me a major challenge. After false starts trying to make the body of my work coloured I rethought my normal practice to include a patch of vivid colour. My usual practice is based on memory and womens’ work, frequently including old white clothing formed into body shapes. My starting point for this colour work was three long hands. Hands are the part of our body that keep the physical link with loved ones that continues throughout life, from the basic caring to the encouraging squeeze of the hand, love is passed on. This work illustrates the parent’s nurturing of their children through years of love, until they eventually fly the nest, and the continuing reach of the paternal bond of love that is never-ending.
www.helenoleary.co.uk
Consuelo Simpson Convergence Working with modest, unmonumental materials, I seek to create a sense of place. The materials will often suggest a form or structure in response to recurring themes or ideas borne from observation and enquiry. Found objects gathered while walking are brought back to the studio where the collection informs the colour palette and provides a focus in helping to hone ideas during the making process. Working through an instinctive process of investigation, I explore structures and textures in search of a relevant visual vocabulary. The work is largely fashioned by hand, frequently using age old methods such as basketry, sewing and weaving techniques which are all imbued with meaning and feeling. The character of the materials and the methods of construction suggest connections with ancestors and those who have left their mark on the land and whose history we continue to write.
www.consuelosimpson.com
Dawn Thorne Pockets of Life I have been investigating the rhythms and patterns created whilst undergoing the life-bringing cycle of breathing. As an asthmatic, I connect with and am energized by the colour, blue. The different hues and textures within the blue spectrum have a varied impact upon me, the way I engage with and associate my well-being. Blue is calming, contemplative and relaxes, thus allowing airwaves to also relax and widen, enabling my ease of breathing. Two works have been created. The first, ‘Life Coats’ is a series of coats and throws that wrap and protect the body from pollution and contaminated air. The wearing of coats symbolizes protection and nurture. In addition a coat can enable the wearer to portray another persona, as they hide or embrace life. For me, a blue coat lightens my rhythm and length of breath, which in turn helps my asthma and breathing. The second work, ‘Pockets of Life’, identifies captured pockets of time, when my breathing is at ease, alongside those days when the simple act of inhale and exhale is a struggle. Each ‘Pocket of Life’ represents that movement and rhythm that is the precarious nature between life and death.
Anthea Vaal Verdigris Shades of turquoise, with reference to verdigris, have been the focus of my study. As a colour I find it very uplifting – evoking sun, sea and travel – and I am fascinated with how it leaches out of the metal when exposed to acidic conditions, particularly with sculptures. Over the centuries artists and scribes have used verdigris to make their green paints and inks. I wished to imitate this often strikingly vivid turquoise pigmentation of white marble plinths by manufacturing verdigris as a dyestuff. Vilene covered umbrellas symbolized the architectural copper forms of shelter, sculpture and weathering. The fabric mimicked the white purity of marble, but I found I could not control the dyeing process and accepted, after a near disastrous accident, that I could only ‘stain’ my work. Finally, stitching a displayable/wearable garment continued the theme of structure and form with the Vilene becoming 3D with bulges and fissures to take the colour.
Studio 21 Colour Blocks
Mary Morris
Contact www.studio21textileartists.co.uk www.facebook.com/Studio 21 Textile Artists Twitter: @studio21textile
With thanks to Ian O’Leary for his assistance http://ianoleary.com
Cover Illustration credits: Front - Sam Harvey Back - Lisa Earley