NATURE TURNS. Inspiration and Artist Research ahead of Trimester 2, 2026. RSA Membership card arrived. I attended Nature Turns on its final day January 18, 2026.
I have chosen for Process and Production to expand on the site specific work I did for Visual Language, Trimester 1. The CORRIE SHORE with PORCELAIN SHARDS project connected to time and human activity interacting with the elements and tides. For Process and Production my investigation is around observations of water, specifically wave patterns, ripples and light refraction with a view to 2D renderings in Print and other mediums. I will draw from life as well as live videos of moving waves and ripples, and where salt and fresh water meet in inlets and harbour. Waves may appear at first ‘predictable’. Definite, regular patterning in water is observable as it responds to gravity, weather, objects and obstacles, refraction and vibration but I postulate water is unpredictable through its mutability. Waves depend on many different factors such as seasons and tides, wind speed, direction (or none) air pressure; sea bed terrain, traffic, plankton and algae, seismic disturbance and famously change with “the pull of Moon on Tides” (J.Mitchell, Blue, 1973). All these factors affect the appearance of waves as they interact with light.
We can observe seismic and subtle effects and everything in between. Of the work I have made, it is the movement of waves which has been the most magnetic, hypnotic and fascinating to me. Another factor vastly affecting our subjectivity is our position in relation to water. Are we IN the water or looking down at it? Minute changes vastly alter what forms and colours we see. My task has been to watch and absorb from life studies, then imagine and remember. Photography has played a large rôle in studies I’ve undertaken, but also I have drawn in situ, gaining impressions, capturing fleeting glimpses which cannot be repeated.
Credits: pic 5 + 6 George Berenson, Trip of a Lifetime. Oil on board.
Pics 7 David Cass, And This Heavy Shore, Oil on Board. Pic 8. David Cass, Persist, Oil on board. Pic 9, Installation: David Cass, Where Once The Waters: Edinburgh (5th instalment).