peter ward ARTIST illustrator

Artist / Illustrator / Contemporary Painting

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KESCOWS AN BYS (THE EARTH TALKS) 9 – ANOTHER REALITY (LOCKDOWN 2) DU / BLACK

“Black is not a colour, it is an absence of light”!?

My early art education taught me that ‘black’ is not a colour but an absence of light. While this may be true in certain contexts, and certainly true when colour mixing with primary colours, since working with earth pigments I have started to recognise colour as matter rather than simply light. How this affects our relationship with the world I’m not sure but it was certainly a revelation…

We have all been affected by the global Covid-19 pandemic. Whether this has been through changes to our lifestyle, our jobs and financial circumstances, our health (both physical and emotional), through loss (of loved ones or strangers) or to the highly visceral environmental ramifications “lockdown” has had, we have experienced something deeply transformational. This fourth body of work has been made as we have moved to a new but uncertain sense of security or ‘normality’. It has been painted and drawn using locally hand gathered and processed black Cornish (Botallack) and Devon (Bideford) earth pigments on a variety of salvaged, found and repurposed surfaces. The pieces represent intuitive conversations between myself, the materials and the contradictions of the ongoing global and local situation. This work was made during the second national ‘Coronavirus Lockdown’ in the UK.

25 lestri /  vessels 4 (Bideford Black on salvaged paper; 28x28cm)
26 lestri / vessels 1 (graphite on salvaged paper; 24x28cm)
27 lestri / vessels 2 (graphite on salvaged paper; 24x28cm)
28 lestri / vessels 3 (graphite on salvaged paper; 24x28cm)
29 lestri / vessels 4 (graphite on salvaged paper; 24x28cm)
30 love tumble (Bideford Black earth pigment on salvaged card; 29x29cm)
31 searching in the dark (Bideford Black and Botallack black earth pigments on salvaged card; 26x32cm)
32 shoreline I (Botallack black ‘ink' on paper; 29x29cm)
33 shoreline II (Botallack black ‘ink' on paper; 29x29cm)
34 shoreline III (Botallack black ‘ink' on paper; 29x29cm)
35 shoreline IV (Botallack black ‘ink' on paper; 29x29cm)
36 small drawing i Bideford Black on salvaged paper; 13x19cm)
37 small drawing ii Bideford Black on salvaged paper; 13x19cm)
38 small drawing iii Bideford Black on salvaged paper; 13x19cm)
39 small drawing iv Bideford Black on salvaged paper; 13x19cm)
40 the right side of the bed (Bideford Black earth pigment on salvaged card; 33x29cm)
41 watching the world grow (Bideford Black earth pigment on salvaged paper; 28x30cm
42 when the moon is dark I (Bideford Black earth pigment on salvaged card; 16x10cm)
43 when the moon is dark II (Bideford Black earth pigment on salvaged card; 16x10cm)
44 when the moon is dark III (Bideford Black earth pigment on salvaged card; 16x10cm)
45 when the moon is dark IV (Bideford Black earth pigment on salvaged card; 10x16cm)
46 an ordinalia (Botallack black ‘ink' on paper; 56x56cm)
47 imbolc (Botallack black ‘ink' on paper; 56x56cm)
48 kodh glaw (Botallack black ‘ink' on paper; 56x56cm)

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