Wild Pigments

creativemarama2

Sep 2

These wild pigment colours come from an inspiring two day workshop held at Bendalong on the south coast of NSW at the end of August. The workshop was organised by Sydney based artist Lara Merrett and funded with support from a Create NSW grant.

Lara invited a group of artists with connections to the Bendalong area to gather under the guidance of natural dyer and artist Joanna Fowles and plant forager Diego Bonetto. Her idea was to bring everyone together through learning more about the place and to give us time and space to share our stories of the area.

Storyteller Diego led us on walks to 'mindfully' forage for edible weeds, seaweed and dye plants which, as you know, is of great interest to me. The highlight, however, was learning about pigments and discovering the astonishing beauty and life force in the rocks we found in the clay wall at the beach.

Joanna guided us to find and process these natural ochres from nearby Washerwoman's beach. We ground them with mortar and pestles, sieved them through strainers and mixed them with soy milk to make paints.

Lara's intention was that the pigment work created by us all will feed into an installation work at her solo painting show in Sydney this month. Titled 'By my side Walking' the exhibition is on at Sullivan & Strumpf.

Thanks for organising such a wonderful two days Lara and I look forward to seeing how you use the pigments in your exhibition.