Drawing

One of a collection of drawings on the verso of 31 empty packages of goods consumed in April; Bi-Narrative No14_Sinutab Spider. The boxes continue one narrative about headaches, breakfasts (cereal boxes), power consumption (battery boxes) etc. The verso drawings in Exbury … Continue reading →

‘Oak on Western Red Cedar’ Media: kitchen knife and Smoke from the paraffin lamp.

The nettle tops continue to harbour lots of different creatures, from the ladybirds already described to spiders, resting hover flies, bees and caterpillars (so far only evidenced by their eggs and eaten leaves). There are many earwigs too.

Many ladybirds were nestling in the nettle tops yesterday morning, including a pair of the scarlet and black seven spot sort.

The swallows were a welcome sight last night as a trio of new arrivals dipped and darted low across the pasture of my neighbouring field looking for food. I yelled the news up the hill to my neighbour Nick, who later … Continue reading →

Fallen branches of riverine oak were split and packed sardine like into two tins, which were then heated over a fire for nearly eight hours. The charcoal produced is of excellent quality for drawing, but its four ounce weight required four … Continue reading →

Blackberries stored since last September were boiled to extract juices which, with the addition of alum and cream of tartar, infused cotton with their essential vibrant energy. The resulting T shirt is part of an evolving collection of ceremonial and practical … Continue reading →

Three wood mice were in the trap at 50-47-08.83N x 1-24-27.84W on the morning of March 18th. Two were released immediately and a third is the subject of a short film. It washed itself for most of the time, which … Continue reading →

For the last three or four days bumble bees have been frequenting the marsh and fields beside the Egg. They are in and out of the mouse holes on the riverbank where they may be seeking shelter from the newly … Continue reading →

I spent all morning studying Andricus Kollari, the tiny parasitic wasp whose eggs cause the marble oak galls on both scrubby oaks growing beside my own Egg. The life cycle of the wasp requires the presence of a Turkey oak which … Continue reading →

The upper limit of the tide was defined by a rippling line of thin clear ice, where the saline water, fingering the same flat marshy river bank for three hours of slack water, froze at its extremities. A weak morning sun … Continue reading →

A small oak opposite the egg has a rich crop of galls to harvest. I will use them to make a dye for my clothing and to create an ink for drawing as the first step toward understanding the cultural … Continue reading →

Rock and roll is today’s soundtrack as the Egg is pushed and tugged by cool blustery winds. I am tucked up inside, drawing an oak leaf with clusters of small circular raised discs on the underside that look like tiny … Continue reading →

Oily looking ferrous reds stain the greyer mud of the marsh edges at different locations within the immediate Parish bounds. University of Southampton research concludes these are ‘ochre springs’ of ferrous hydroxide colloids emerging from alluvial sediment and the clays, marls … Continue reading →

The water of the Beaulieu River etches its own tide lines into its enclosing banks of flora; the stems of the grasses have a fine coating of alluvial clay whilst the leaf line on the blackthorn is also clearly drawn … Continue reading →

Individual blackberries collected from around the Egg were drawn by scraping through an ink wash created from their own juices. Twenty preserved berries (suspended in methanol) have been rendered in this way and a random quartet are here chosen to … Continue reading →

Rain water has been ingressing the Egg for some time and has been the active agent in creating the work on canvas ‘Stained Sun Shield’ (above), representing seven showers passing through the western red cedar shell during August. The source … Continue reading →

I washed dyes extracted from the juice of blackberries onto paper boards. The brighter hue is made from pure blackberry and is very fugitive. In a few moths it will fade to a pale washed out blue. The darker colour was … Continue reading →

Striped arial raiders have dug out a former mouse hole as a home and I am keeping my distance as they come and go. The wasp’s sting evolved from an ovipositor and so only the females will send you off … Continue reading →