#sarahneedham

Tiny Experiments in Colour No2, Sarah Needham

This painting is part of the exploratory process that I have been going through 2016- 2017 developing groups of works using raw pigments. The origins of these works comes from a series I did for St Katharine Docks exploring the history as a trading centre. I started using indigo as a pigment in oil based media. I became fascinated by the way in which the pigment interacted with the media not just in terms of glossiness or matt effect but also in terms of luminosity and perception of colour. Towards the end of 2016 I branched out into other evocative pigments, pigments that had a relevant place in the history of people and trade, ochre, the oldest pigment known to have been used for mark making and the first evidence of transgeographical human trade. Chrimium oxide, a product of the industrial revolution, originally a pigment for ceramics, first used in painting by Turner: It is especially opaque. Viridian, it's close translucent relative and just a few others. In the tiny experiments in colour my aim was to produce a sense of space on a tiny 2D surface using minimal suggestive gestures and a very limited palette.

Bristol Presentiments1770 :Indigo and Ochre, Sarah Needham

This is part of the Bristol Presentiments Series works painted using pigments imported into Bristol in the first half of 1770. An abstract piece inviting you to fall in and create your own connections.

Selection of small pieces available at TOAF Bristol, Sarah Needham

Part of the Bristol Presentiments 1770 series using pigments imported into Bristol in the first half of that year. Each piece is stand alone or can be arranged in groups. Abstract paintings using the challenge of creating a sense of space in a small surface. Using these pigments care has been taken to give them a coat of UV protective varnish They are either gilded of copper edges on the edges.

From Deptford to Shooters Hill, Sarah Needham

In creating these works I was remembering the role of Deptford in the development of ship building and the importation of armaments South of the river Thames. I use cobalt turquoise as a dominant pigment here as it is at once beautiful and toxic, evocative of water and depth and danger. Deptford is where Henry the VIII built his ship building docks, Charles the II gave Royal approval to the copper bottoming of ships, a process fraught with technical difficulties, which eventually lead to massive growth in copper mining in England, and to ships that were sea worthy enough for the transatlantic slave trade. Cobalt is used in contemporary rechargeable batteries and still associated with dangerous mining practices. I also wanted to create images which simply had a sense of space, just as the road from Deptford to shooters Hill had and still does, disturbed and disturbing and at once beautiful, spaces for you the viewer to fall in get a little lost and remember.

Small experiments in colour No 5, Sarah Needham

Using traditional pigments and painting media i have been layering and experimenting with creating the illusion of space in small clour saturated images.