An Overview of my Experimentation: Integrating Art and Nature

I have experimented with creating a connection between art and nature in a vast variety of ways. Here are a few of the many examples of techniques I have been employing.

Paper Making: Incorporating Natural Materials

Painting with River Water

Exploring with integrating nature into my art and attempting to portray a connection between the art world and the natural world, I decided to collect a jar of river water and use it to paint watercolours with. Here the materials from nature and art are together on one page, natural river water and paint from watercolour tubes.

Collagraphing Natural Matter

After attending a collagraph workshop and thinking about different ways that I can incorporate nature into art, I decided to collagraph some elements that I have collected on walks through natural environments and see what kind of detail would come out in the prints. I simply glued the elements to square pieces of card, painted shellac over the top of them, allowed them to dry and inked them up to print. Some of the plates came out better than others. It is interesting taking prints directly from nature itself. The marks in my opinion, have a greater connection to nature than if you were to draw it from observation. As well as the Prints, I think the plates are very beautiful objects and definitely artistically depict nature.

Collaborating with Nature itself

I drew these sketches using really cheap, low quality fine liners in the hope that they would be impermenant. I then placed the drawings outside, weighted them down with some stones and watched out the window as the rain hit the surface of the paper. A few minutes later, to my surprise, it started to snow and so two natural weather conditions: the rain and the snow were responsible for the changes that happened to my artwork. The rain and snow played a key role in the creation of these works and the experiment was successful as the outcomes are highly interesting.

The moisture from the weather caused the ink to run, creating very appealing outcomes. As well as Tim Knowles, this exercise was also inspired by my field option: Drawing as experience. Within this option, there has been a much great focus on process than on the outcome and there has been a lot of uncertainty and unpredictability surrounding what the outcome would look like. The outcome of these pieces could not have been predicted and the process before the outcome is what links in with my subject work more closely. I set up the experiment and then the natural weather created the final outcome, I had no part in the watery marks. In a way, I guess you could say I collaborated with nature to create these works.

Drawing Outdoors using Natural Found Objects

Inspired by my Field work, I created artwork using nature to draw it, in a natural setting and filmed the process. The piece shows me using organic material like leaves and twigs found from the floor of the woodland setting and dipping them in ink. I then used these materials to make marks and drag the ink across the paper. The outcomes created instantly have a connection to the place they were produced in and nature as that is what was used to draw it. I also used a technique of memory drawing by drawing abstracted Brecon Beacons Landscapes in the piece. This intertwines my memories of that place into the work as well. This work was never about the outcome, but the process and experience.

Using Nature as a Surface to work on

Consolidating my experimentation and bringing it together into one post will help me to progress and evaluate what is working and what isn’t and what I want to continue with. Experimentation is key to my work and I will never stop exploring the relationships that can be made between art and nature.

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