Work in progress

Earlier this year I was invited to take up the post of Artist-in-Residence alongside Kathryn Parsons, who has held this post for the last two years. Today we spent an afternoon at Swaddywell Reserve working together. 

Having had a very busy and slightly stressful week I didn't have a lot of time to think through what I wanted to do, but we ended up spending the first half hour walking and collecting inspirational natural material, and most of the rest of our time experimenting with cyanotypes.

I used some of my Mum's old watercolour paper which I'd coated back in March but re-wetted it  and added a variety of additional chemicals including vinegar and salt before laying on plant material and exposing the print to sunlight. In this one I also added a few crystals of copper sulphate, which reduced to copper, giving a wonderful rich orange. 

Kathryn advised me to photograph the pieces during the process and this was really useful as the colours change considerably over the course of the exposure and again when the chemicals are washed off. It was an exciting learning experience, and acted as a perfect antidote to the rest of the week.