Discovering my inner alchemist
EXPERIMENTAL NATURE, PRECIOUS NATURE
Lab+Exhibition: Wed-Sat, 10am-4pm till 26 April (possibly until 3rd May - check in with me) 2024
Stranraer Creative Hub, King Street, Stranraer
For the last month, I’ve had an exciting experience, cooking up a storm in Stranraer Creative Hub. I was offered a residency to mark the Hub’s first birthday, with the mission to create a brand new show by 12 April.
I had no idea what I’d create when I set out but my approach was clear - applying my own experimental nature to precious nature to see what we could conjure up together. My inspiration was a series of Winter Explorations I’d taken part in, learning about the unique habitats along the Solway Coast plus a mentoring project I’d been part of, learning to make art materials from natural sources with Edward and Lucy from The Old Mill Palnackie.
I foraged the seashore, fields and woods along the Solway Coast from Stranraer to Annan via Kippford and Caerlaverock and transformed nature’s gifts into art media and tools for mark-making.
Step 1 - above: learning about the Solway’s unique habitats and foraging for materials: (left to right) 1) Stranraer 2) Kippford 3) Caerlaverock
Step 2 - above: learning to make art materials from nature: (left to right)
1) mentoring with artists Lucy & Ed from the Old Mill, Palnackie
2) making pigment from stone
3) pairing pigments with natural objects: oyster shells and stones from Stranraer shore
My experimental Lab in Stranraer Creative Hub was open to visitors during my 3 week residency. Locals popped in to watch me in a new role… artist-alchemist, as I went about transforming goose and rabbit poo into paper and pigment, making paper from whelk egg cases and making a paint brush from Belted Galloway fur to paint a cow… an icon for the area.
The iconic local cow, a Belted Galloway, painted with a brush made from ‘Beltie’ fur, found on a barbed wire fence at Corsewall Lighthouse.
I foraged, boiled, pounded, smashed, sieved, pressed, coaxed and slipped on goose and rabbit poo, crab apples, oak galls, alder and pine cones, bones to make this show, celebrating our coast.
I used my residency in Stranraer as a Lab, allowing me to immerse myself in the making process. I’ve been inspired, energised and enthralled by the beauty of the natural materials foraged along the Solway Coast. I’ve responded to their transformation, allowing each process and my sense of awe and excitement to lead to the next stage of development.
I crushed stones from the beach to make pigment and then paint driftwood
I used a goose-feather to draw geese and geese skein (geese in flight), now framed and hung in the show
I made paper from crab apples and deconstructed them to make a sculpture
I used fermented grass from Dunskey to make paper for a landscape
I boiled up goose and rabbit poo and made paper used in 2D and 3D work.
Above: hand-crafted elements conjured from nature that made up the show
Janet Jones, Creative Director of Stranraer Creative Hub kindly said: “We’ve been delighted to host Erinclare. She has exhibited more traditional paintings in frames here before. This is a different approach. It's so dynamic, creative and inspiring. This residency and her Lab of Ideas has brought lots of people into the Hub to see what this enthusiastic, energetic alchemist-artist is up to.
“It has amazed people to find out just how she has used nature to create these works. It’s inspiring for folks to see that you don’t need expensive art materials to make art… just imagination, excitement and an adventurous spirit.”
Above: I loved having the chance to share my process and work with visitors. I laid it out so that the show represented the Solway Coast, using strip maps of Stranraer, Dunskey Estate, Kippford and Caerlaverock, each area of the exhibition reflecting that area’s natural habitats.
VISITOR COMMENTS
“Mind-blowing exhibition. Such creativity.”
“Inspiring exhibition. Well worth travelling from Girvan.”
“Stunning journey. What an inspiring exploration of nature and art. I absolutely love the feeling I have knowing all the inks and juices come from land, sea and innards! (poop)”
“What a fabulously creative exhibition. It made me much more aware about the environment around me.”
The Lab and Exhibition was inspired by Winter Explorations along the coast to understand more about its natural, precious habitats. Travelling West to East across Dumfries & Galloway, I found out about oysters and seagrass on Stranraer’s shores and water; Kippford’s rare heritage crab apples; Caerlaverock’s attraction to thousands of Arctic’s Barnacle Geese who over-winter there and the rare Natterjack Toad that thrives there. This series of public engagements was part of Dumfries & Galloway Council’s Solway Coast & Marine Project (SCAMP), a £20 million 10-15 year coastal restoration project.
