My paintings are inspired by the limited ochre colour palette of the art of Northern Australia's Yolngu community. Living ancient cultures, such as many Indigenous Australian communities and African communities, have valued ochre, red in particular, for tens and even hundreds of thousands of years. It has not only been used as a pigment for painting onto objects, cave walls and skin, often in preparation for ceremony, but has also been a potent symbol of the earth that sustains everyone and everything and of blood that keeps everyone alive. Interestingly it is iron that makes both the ochre and blood red. In some communities ochre is mixed with animal fats and smeared over the body to protect against the sun and to ward off biting insects. It has also been used as medicine for skin complaints and to pack wounds and keep them dry whilst they heal. In addition, ochre has been used in the tanning process of animal hides.
We can only guess at the ancestral place of ochre in ancient British culture. There are hints that ancient UK cultures placed special significance on these pigmented soft rocks. The Red "Lady" of Paviland is actually an Upper Palaeolithic partial male skeleton dyed in red ochre and buried in Wales 33,000 BC. There are other bones that have been found with ochre scratches on them and at least one skeleton was unearthed with what appeared to be an amount of red ochre left in the grave, a small pile of it, just above their head. Ochre pieces have been found in other graves and evidence of ochre on tomb walls has also been identified. We can only guess at the relevance of ochre for these peoples, but it's not impossible that ochre was used for the many and varied practical and symbolic purposes for which they are still used by ancient living cultures today.
I get pleasure in finding ways to translate contemporary scientific ideas into ochre abstract patterns. The limited ochre palette forces me to think of ways to represent ideas in a non-realistic fashion. I've looked at genetics, our planet, coronavirus, orbiting planets, telluric currents, rivers and pregnancy.
We can only guess at the ancestral place of ochre in ancient British culture. There are hints that ancient UK cultures placed special significance on these pigmented soft rocks. The Red "Lady" of Paviland is actually an Upper Palaeolithic partial male skeleton dyed in red ochre and buried in Wales 33,000 BC. There are other bones that have been found with ochre scratches on them and at least one skeleton was unearthed with what appeared to be an amount of red ochre left in the grave, a small pile of it, just above their head. Ochre pieces have been found in other graves and evidence of ochre on tomb walls has also been identified. We can only guess at the relevance of ochre for these peoples, but it's not impossible that ochre was used for the many and varied practical and symbolic purposes for which they are still used by ancient living cultures today.
I get pleasure in finding ways to translate contemporary scientific ideas into ochre abstract patterns. The limited ochre palette forces me to think of ways to represent ideas in a non-realistic fashion. I've looked at genetics, our planet, coronavirus, orbiting planets, telluric currents, rivers and pregnancy.
I have recently started exploring the ancient symbols of prehistoric Britain, often remaining as petroglyphs; drawings excised in rocks. Sometimes these deeply or slightly scratched drawings have been left on outcrops of rocks in the countryside, sometimes they are scratched onto walls of tombs or caves, sometimes on way markers or other exploded outcrops. I enjoy translating these images, interpreting and reimagining them in ochres. I love the way my brain wanders whilst I paint, helping me decide which colours to put where. When I paint, I find myself creating new meanings for the shapes, responding instinctively to their arrangements. Are they drawings of settlements, showing inhabitants and relationships between different families? Are they drawings of hunting successes or enclosures for animals? Are they records of years lived or life/community events? No-one really knows, as the stories about these pictures have been lost over time, but we can speculate and wonder. I find my wonderings are informed by some of my knowledge about indigenous art and the time I have spent immersing myself in indigenous culture and ideas..
Recent evidence suggests that the enigmatic "cup and ring" motifs that are found all over the UK, particularly in Scotland, may be related to the neolithic petroglyph spheres that have been found in Scotland, Ireland and Norway. The hypothesis that has been put forward is that these spheres have been carved to fit into the cup shapes and that the highlights and shadows cast on and around these spheres enable to onlooker to tell the time at different points in the year. This is a remarkable thought, as timekeeping, in this way, was not thought to have been possible this far back in our ancient history. Of course humans have been making a note of time passing for millions of years by reading the signs of seasonal change in the natural world around them: the flowering of a certain plant would herald the spawning of certain fish or ripeness of certain fruits. However, the idea that neolithic people were carrying with them tools that they had fashioned that could help them keep track of time is enlightening. This is to be my next avenue of creative exploration; time, history, seasons and symbols.