Further progress on our Wooden Angel series, inspired by 11 pairs of medieval 6 foot oak carvings that support an incredible hammer beam roof in St Mary’s Church, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. We found them staring down on us on a particularly difficult day, before our period of isolation and were moved by their permanence and unfaltering gaze.
We are working, as always on our favourite St Cuthberts Mill #bockingford rough paper; its surface is perfect for developing texture and doesn’t buckle under the strain. We use the thickest grade we can find and never stretch it, so the various mediums we use have space to ebb and flow. Sometimes we take a monoprint onto another sheet, as we’ve done here to form the basis of a diptych. We then draw into the resulting marks that are illuminated by the surface of this wonderful paper.
More later! Take good care
Stephen and Lorna x
#stcuthbertsmill #stcmill @st_cuthberts_mill
We’ve been invited, as Ambassadors of St Cuthberts Mill Art papers to visit their factory near Wells in Somerset to see how their world renowned paper is produced and the high environmental standards that make their production sustainable. Water used in the process travels a matter of metres from the River Axe, before returning to the same river, cleaner than when extracted, leaving a negligible carbon footprint. We are delighted to have the opportunity to see this first hand later this year.
Our new studio nestles in the Lark Valley, the very matter of nature suffusing our perspectives, in turn makes us value the materials we use and the way they are produced. We have no doubt that new work will illustrate the holistic synchronicity between artist and material.
We look forward to sharing our visit to St Cuthberts Mill later this year and thank them for this wonderful opportunity.
In the meantime, we are working with some fabulously rough St Cuthberts Mill 200lb Bockingford. Here we are in action, monoprinting 2 full size pieces of paper that have been thoroughly soaked with water and had watercolour and ink applied in broad gestures. It’s very much part of our process to begin with a bold and loose technique and then when dry, answer the resulting marks with our combined input. Apologies for my poor camera work!! More soon!
Stephen and Lorna
#stcuthbertsmill #Bockingford #stcmill #watercolour #collaborativeart @st_cuthberts_mill #contemporaryartists
