I wrote in an earlier post about my interest in collecting pigments, stains and impressions from the landscape and the materials of particular places. These traces and the process of collecting them shape the form of pieces of work as well as providing the colours that I use.
When I’m collecting materials towards some work I frequently come back with pockets full of bags of clay or sand or chalk. These samples end up in jars with strips of paper tests to show the colours derived from them. This collecting and classifying urge shows itself in the work that I make which often takes the form of accumulations of cast paper shapes. Process and material are different ends of the same thing in my work. I find it extraordinarily difficult to think about or plan new work without material in my hands but I also need a process or framework of approach to be able to make. Working in relation to the landscape gives me both matter and method.
For the work that is going to be shown at Newark Park I was very interested to be able to respond both to the surrounding outdoor landscape but also to the indoor ‘landscape’ of the house where objects placed in relation to each other form a connection.
The photo was taken in my studio while I was finishing things off last week. I don’t want to show whole pieces of work yet before they have arrived at Newark Park but I am pleased to see the way that individual parts work, overlapped with others.
Jane Ponsford 