Artist inspiration - natural processes
There are so many artist’s who have inspired me along my artist journey that it would be impossible to write about them all. Instead, I am going to choose a few each month, on a different theme each time, and write about how they have inspired my work. Some of the artist’s I write about will fall into more than one category but I will prioritise the aspect of their work that most interests me.
This month I am going to look at artist’s using eco-printing, natural dyeing and other natural processes in their work.
India Flint
Inventor of the eco-print, India is an Australian artist working with multiple methods of extracting colour from plants. Her book ‘Eco Colour – botanical dyes for beautiful colour’ is a comprehensive study of her working processes and I find it so interesting to read about the different plants she uses and the colours they yield. I am only at the beginning of my own natural dyeing and eco-printing explorations and her book gives me so much food for thought and inspires me to keep trying things out and getting excited about the results. There really is no end to the possibilities.
Front cover of India Flint’s book
Lotta Helleberg
Another artist working with eco-prints, this time from Sweden but currently based in Virginia. She says of her work;
“Plant prints are like fingerprints: each unique, beautiful and magical in their own right. By collecting leaves locally I can explore and examine what is thriving in my surroundings. My work depicts the intricacy of botany and organic life by using repetition, patterns and textures.”
Her use of eco-prints is very sympathetic to the plants themselves. The delicacy of the plant is visible in her work, as well as her use of stitch to enhance the beauty of it. She uses patchwork techniques to isolate areas of her prints and put them together in a new formation, which imbues her work with a kind of poetry.
Alicia Hall
Alicia’s book ‘Seasonal Plant Dyes’ is a relatively new purchase for me. Her instructions for natural dyeing are some of the simplest and most user friendly that I have found. She has made the process of natural dyeing feel less daunting for me and, consequently, I feel able to have a go. I have dabbled with dyeing threads in jars using plants and a solar dye technique but dyeing cloth has always felt a bit beyond my capabilities until now. I will begin my natural dyeing experiments in the winter, using the ivy leaves in the garden because I know they won’t be missed if I take them!
Front cover of Alicia Hall’s book
Alice Fox
Alice uses a number of different natural processes to create her art. Whether foraging fibres to make vessels or marking cloth and paper with rust dyeing and handmade plant inks, nature is at the heart of her process. Her book ‘Natural Processes in Textile Art’ is another one that I find myself dipping into regularly. There are so many ideas for different processes to try but I find myself drawn to the ones concerned with making marks; making vegetable and walnut inks, rust dyeing and different kinds of printing. I will explore some of these ideas in the coming months.
Front cover of Alice Fox’s book