A SENSORY EXPERIENCE
Making day was approaching and I was overwhelmed by too many ideas about what I wanted to work on during our session. I had lots of loose ends in my mind and that feeling that I hate and have come to know so well during this course…UNCERTAINTY, UNKNOWING. I hear Michele’s words as she refers to a quote by Rebecca Fortnum: On not knowing – “…working at the edge of unthought/not knowing”.
With this in mind and a desperation to regain some order in my mind, I went on my daily run along the mountain path above the University sports stadium. I can see this path from my studio and I love running here. I run along the red clay path up a steep hill that leads to a Eucalyptus forest. Here I stop. Yes, because I am out of breath! …but also because it is such a sensory stimulating place, that it figuratively takes my breath away. Also the smell of the eucalyptus and the hints of charcoal on the trees from a fire a few years ago intrigues me. The lines of the trees are rhythmic and I find the curving shape of the eucalyptus leaves so unique, but it is the sound of the trees, the wind singing through it’s leaves, that brings me to silence. I close my eyes. Shhhhhhhhh Shhhhhhhh Shhhhhhhhhh. As I listen to this sound I realise how busy my mind is. Shhhh…quiet…. Listen. You don’t need to be anywhere else in your thoughts but here. I am instantly calmed. Inspired by the simplicity and the message that was given so gently to me via the sound of the wind rushing through leaves, I took some time to sit on the forest floor and absorb it all. It made me curious and wanted to see how I can use this place, this experience as a starting point for new work.
A white breasted crow lands gently on a branch, then flies to another tree nearby. It’s black feathers creating a strong contrast with the pale bark of the tree. I am still…
Here is the Eucalyptus forest – photo’s and a video taken from previous runs here:
Audio track:
Another audio track with better sound of only the leaves:
Short video with sound:
I return:
A few days before our making day, I decided to return to the forest with my youngest daughter. It was an impromptu decision as we had some time to kill between school-runs. I wanted to take some photographs of her in the same forest to try and capture my personal experience.
I guess that indirectly explains why I wanted to use one of my children. Besides that fact that they are my constant companions and the easiest and most willing models I can get, I see and experience them as extensions of myself in the world. In this phase of my life, I have the privilege of constantly re-experiencing life through a child’s eyes. I can be a teenager, a tween and a toddler again…! They give me a chance to ‘relive’ my own childhood as many of the things they do or notice takes me back in time. This is often followed by some internal questions and reflections, both good and disturbing. Using them in my art is a vital and rich experience to me.
As we walked into the trees I asked my 5 year old to listen to the trees. I asked if she could hear the word they were saying. And she guessed right! SHHH 🤫
I got some nice shots and was able to pick a few that captured what I experienced. The idea was to use the red Oxide I made into a powder pigment a few weeks ago as one of the background colours. The pigment came from the very soil that the trees are standing in. I also wanted to try to make Eucalyptus ink or lake to create an expressive backdrop (using the red oxide from the soil and the eucalyptus ink from the leaves) onto which I thought of doing a charcoal (taken from the burned trees among them) figure study of my 5 year old as she listens to the trees. That was the vision but we’ll see where the process takes me. Most importantly, I have found a process (methodology perhaps?) that inspires me to create something.
I also wanted to add the crow that visited me the first time in the forest seeing that I kept seeing so many crows lately. I had a feeling that there was a story unfolding.
A few initial photo’s that capture the experience:
Making Day:
I started the day by glueing a large (1,400 x 900mm) 300gms of Fabriano paper to a piece of hardboard. Once it was dry, I prepared some washes of watercolour paint (which I prepared a few weeks ago from natural earth from the eucalyptus forest area). The idea was to create an expressive background during our making-day session, into which I can do the figure study at a later stage.
My watercolour mixture ended up being very ligth in colour and I had to wait and use a blowdryer to get layers dry in order to add the next layer to darken. While the paint was try, I used small branches of eucalyptus leaves to create a texture – painting over the leaves as if they were stencils or using them to make marks. I also did some writing (thoughts about the experience) into the wet paint and mapped out the figure. This gives me time to warm up and as I do this new ideas grow and I get use to the scale and size of the surface. Because I like having the process visible, some of these marks I might leave exposed. I was hoping to be more productive on the day but only had a light wash to show. It was a start. In the background I was cooking up some eucalyptus leaves in order to make an ink which I could also use as part of the background. They gave off the most divine smell that filled the house!
Making Eucalyptus ink:
Cooking the leaves in some water and a rusted nail for about an hour or two.
The leaves initially gave off a yellow colour but once I added a rusted nail, it darkened. I will test this on my background to see if the colour is useful. I will soon have some chemicals I need in order to make this into a lake pigment but I might start over and keep the more yellow colour without the rusted nail.