Starting from a series of drawings from a week’s retreat in October 2024 exploring mark making. I experimented with flowing ink across paper, layering up pattern, playing with marks simply for the joy of mark-making. I realised that these reminded me of the simple devices which have been used as pattern across millennia, such as circles and crosses. Over time, some of the patterns have disappeared or been hidden by further layers of patterning.

Rather than using generic shapes, for this piece I took specific marks from a Roman carved stone seen in a museum in Glasgow, Scotland. These ancient patterns resonate as much now as when they were freshly cut. I distorted the early layers of paint with water, allowing the random flow of time to give additional shape to the patterns, creating networks, joining them up, creating a new linear mesh, almost losing the original marks. To bring us back to the past, I added more of the original shapes on top in paint, fabric and stitch.

The canvas is marked with acrylic inks and paints and walnut ink, with appliqué of fabric and cyanotype paper. Finally I added hand stitch.

A unique piece of mixed media artwork.

Vestiges – Pelta comes framed in a floating frame. The canvas is 76 x 61cm.

For more information about the work, please check out the Vestiges page on my website