Objets trouvés

Objets trouvés are often stimulating, and colour plates in books are wonderful things, particularly old ones. The yellowing paper, the ranks of insects, lichens and plants that look as if they have been painted from dead specimens on pins (and probably were), and the arcane taxonomies, all contribute to the rather strange testament to life in death that is the colour plate. As a child, and even now, if I pick up a book of a certain age and size, I will look to see if there are plates – and better still, maps or charts that fold out!

I have any number of annoying small boxes containing found objects. Their provenance grows fainter with time, and after a while, I have no idea where I was when I collected these items. I had been looking for something unrelated when I came across these items. I realised that I could paint something that combined both objets trouvés and the colour plate. As always, the subject comes from outside, not from someplace inside me. It is the external world that shapes us.

As ‘colour plate’ the painting shows the following (top to bottom):

1. Slipper limpet (Crepidula fornicata – a wonderful name!)
2. Native Oyster (Ostrea edulis)
3. Unknown feather, probably a Blackbird (Turdus merula)
4. Hmm – work in progress, maybe the Surf clam (Spisula solida)
5. A hazelnut (Corylus avellana)

I used watercolour and gouache (the latter for chalky texture and body). It was pleasing to combine these things for shape and texture, and then further explore those qualities in the paint. Seen from a distance, there is also a sense of a tribal sigil, but this is a happy accident.

You may also like this still life of vegetables and a chopping board.