Found and Ground's Summer Solstice news
The cover of my first book
Found and Ground Summer Solstice Newsletter
It's publication day!
Today is the official publication day of Found and Ground - A practical guide to making your own foraged paints! I am writing this to you the night before, as I will be on a train tomorrow to go and teach with my Dark Mountain colleagues at Schumacher College, in Devon, UK. You can still join us for our free event 'The Uncivilised Table' on Thursday 22nd June at 8pm.
I am both excited and a little tired, as I have been working, travelling or preparing to teach pretty much non stop since 6th March, and I have another month to go before I get to unplug completely. However, It has all been worth it, even just for the responses I have already had to the book from students and strangers. Thank you!
If you're receiving this it's because you signed up, gave me your email address, or came to a class with me. If you don't wish to get these emails, just press unsubscribe at the bottom of the message.
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Image: gathering reeds for pens with my brother and my eldest niece, 2022
Special Offers for my newsletter subscribers
If you are in the UK, you can get 20% off and free postage by ordering my book here, direct from my publisher. Just put 'FOUND20' in the promo code box.
If you are in the USA, you can get 20% off and free postage by ordering my book here, direct from my publisher. Just put 'FOUND23' in the promo code box.
For autographed copies or for any readers living outside UK or USA: Just send an email to me via my website homepage from 23rd June and ask for the book discount. Payment can be by Wise (fka Transferwise), PayPal or bank transfer, details will be sent in return emails to each book request. I have bought my own stash of copies of my books from the publishers, and I am happy to send them autographed with hugely discounted flat rate postage worldwide and a bookmark featuring the full artwork that my oak tree logo comes from, for £18. I will be posting them in 2 layers of traditional strong brown paper wrapping, so that the parcels stay thin enough to travel by Royal Mail Large Letter post (which costs me between £2.70-£7.05 depending on destination). Folks are welcome to ask for a personal message inside, just add it to your name and address in your email.
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Image: preparing materials for the first Wild Twins students, 2018 (photo Paul Kingsnorth)
Book launch
If you are in England then please do come to my book launch for Found and Ground on 20th July 2023. It will be held at the Dartington Trust bookshop in Totnes, Devon. From 6-7pm I will give a demonstration and talk, with a small gift for everyone, places cost £3. Then from 7-8pm there will be a free public reception and book signing, all are welcome. It’s a wonderful local bookstore full of such a great selection of books, and so far I think this will be my only public book event, as my students and colleagues are spread around the world, rather than being in one geographical place. We shall see, I am open to invitations! Afterwards I’ll be at The Bull Inn with friends and local students, as the rhubarb margarita made such an impression on my taste buds last time, I feel the need to top up the flavour again.
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Image: a screen shot of Amazon.co.uk today
How you can help get the book out there
Today I went to claim my 'author page' on Amazon, something my publisher asked me to do a few months ago... It was actually a nice experience as I was able to recommend other books such as Heidi Gustafson's stunning Book Of Earth, which I am enjoying right now. I looked up my book on the Amazon listings and found that it is ranked #1 best seller in 'Environmental and Land Art'. I hadn't known I was in that category, but I am happy to be in the company of these good books.
Positive reviews really do help the book get out there, that's the reality of algorithm-based sales online. If you have enjoyed the book, wherever you bought it, I would be incredibly grateful if you'd leave the book a good review on Amazon, Goodreads and anywhere else you look at book reviews. If you have a local library or arts organisation you think would like the book, please do suggest it to them. It's strange, having put so much effort and love into all the pages, I'd like the book to have a fun life out there in the world. Thanks for helping in any way you can!
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Image: swatching all the inks in my fridge, 26th May 2022.
In person and online courses
After teaching with the Dark Mountain Project at Schumacher College this midsummer, I also return to Dartington (Devon, UK) to repeat my ‘natural art school in one week’ course: Found and Ground Art Materials. We will cover pigment foraging, paints of many kinds, inks, charcoal making, quill pens, brushes, sketchbook making, cordage, lake pigments, pastels, historical materials and methods, no-waste practices and more. Students go home with everything they need for a low environmental impact, high beauty art kit. You don’t need any previous experience in drawing or painting, just a desire to get closer to the unmade world and make space for wildness. Dartington provides great food and accommodation too, the grounds alone are a delight, full of huge ancient trees.
I have other courses and classes later this year too, Painting on leather in Netherlands (sold out), and a new course on ancestral drawing materials and methods with Plants and Colour, we are still finalising the details but the dates will be 6th and 13th December 2023. All the details will be in the next newsletter
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Image: a selection of pigments from my collection Wild Inks and Paints (2 day course)
23-24 September 2023, Cotesbach Educational Trust Main Street Cotesbach Lutterworth LE17 4HX, England, UK. Booking and more details here
Paints: Come and learn how to make beautiful paints from what we can forage in nature and find in our neighbourhoods. Using materials of earth, trees, plants and water, we’ll make colourful natural paints that our ancestors would have used on parchment or paper, particularly in Europe from 600CE until the Twentieth Century, as well as in India and the Middle East. You’ll go home with simple paints and refined watercolours, but more importantly, the knowledge of how to make art materials from what’s around you, wherever you are. You will learn how to ethically forage your materials without harming your environment.
We will cover watercolours and gouache from gum Arabic and cherry tree gum, tempera and glair from egg, and vegan alternatives to egg paints. The day will be hands-on and practical, but we’ll also learn about the traditional uses of all the paints we make and there will be ample time for questions. Bring a sketchbook and favourite brush or two, to make swatches of your paints throughout the session. All other materials will be provided.
Inks: In this class we’ll learn to make oak gall and iron gall ink, the traditional ink of the Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence and almost all European illuminated manuscripts, such as the Book of Kells. We will learn a foraged, simple, technique as well as a studio method, both will make beautiful black inks. You will learn how to ethically forage your materials. Then we will make other botanical inks and learn how to create, test, and modify a variety of plant-based materials for colourful inks. We will make quill pens and brushes from goose or turkey feathers, as used in Saxon times in the scriptorium. I’ll be explaining some of the history and chemistry of our inks and how to use and store them.
You’ll go home with inks, pens, brushes, and the knowledge of how to brew up simple colourful inks and long-lasting tannin-based inks at home. Bring a sketchbook and favourite brush or two, to make swatches of your inks throughout the session. All other materials will be provided.
What to bring for either workshop: wear old clothes as some of the materials we’ll use can stain. Feel free to bring any large feathers (such as goose, swan, gull or crow) that you find in the meantime, as well as any oak galls or seashells you find.
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Image: improvised brushes and pens
Our Dark Materials
Our Dark Materials, the series of pieces I commissioned for Dark Mountain’s online edition is now complete. It features work from artists whose choice of raw materials eschew the pristine in favour of the real, the everyday and the overlooked. Trenchant ideas and deep politics can be expressed by working in natural, traditional or scavenged materials, just as well as they can by factory-made components. The work our four featured makers create are like oases of haptic richness in a tactile desert. Head over to read about Thomas Little, Allan Brown, Joumana Medlej and Gabriel Rivera. My introductory essay is here. We'll be back with more artists and makers in the autumn.
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Image: working on drawings for The Illustrated Wake, 2017
Small beginnings
When I was drawing for Paul Kingsnorth's book with the ancient materials and home made ink you can see in the picture, I had no idea that one day I would write a book about how to make these materials. And though the planned colour volume of his book never came out, so many great projects blossomed from these humble beginnings - our Wild Twins Course, then collaborations and illustrations with so many great people and organisations, and at last, the book that comes out today. There are many people I'd like to thank, and I think I'll do a special post about that soon.
This is just to say, if you too are working on something in the background, wondering if it is leading anywhere, whether it will come to fruition, then keep going! Keep your spirits up and your heart in the work. It doesn't have to be a grand project, just make a start.
121 study
Get in touch if you would like to study 121 with me at my home in Bournemouth or online during September or October. We can deep dive into pigments, inks, paints, pens, brushes, drawing, foraging colour, and so much more. In person, it is possible to learn most of the crafts or techniques you may have seen on my Instagram account that may have intrigued you. There is ample free parking nearby and a train station only 12 mins walk away where I am happy to meet you. I can supply all materials and equipment as well as a tasty lunch!