Caroline Ross

Drawing, Illustration, Ancient Materials, @foundandground

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DM13 is out

The new Dark Mountain features a detail from a rock drawing I made in Portland this February. Full blog post and pictures here.

cover 01 sm

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April 24, 2018 Caroline Ross Tagged books, Dark Mountain, materials, painting, rock painting, writing Leave a comment

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← Dark Mountain 13 Cover

Wild Twins head home →

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Way markers: natural and man made. First: Tooting oak tree in morning (east) light. Wonderfully sharp line where vegetation grows, and where it does not. Here in a northern temperate zone such as the UK, the moss and green lichen like this one grow on the north side of trees. Really helps orient you in the woods and hills sometimes. Second picture, an old iron marker I had never noticed before in Tooting by Church Lane, of the London County boundary line, now defunct. London grew and ate all the edgelands... but the marker still stands unobtrusively beside a fence. . . . #urbantrees #naturalnavigation #urbanwayfaring #thesacredgroves #citynature #milestones #londonhistory #tooting

Mystery. . . . #mist #fog #riverlife #riverthames #boatlife #towpath #bollards

On my way to class. A day of packing and admin means no crafting and no drawing. :( and thus no more new pictures. However, my long-dreamed-of new houseboat now has a build date and so I am allowing myself a bit of mental planning. The 8 months it has taken to get to this point have been, how shall we say? A challenge. One more week to go until I can relax a bit. Here are simpler moments. Gathering fungi in Aberdeenshire. My best friend snapped me sawing wood. Everyday absorption. . . . #foraging #fungi #sawingwood #boatlife #absorption #everydaydelight

Cherry tree gum medium, as replacement for gum arabic. As promised to a couple of fellow natural art materials instagrammers, here’s a couple of photos, rather plain, (as I am busy packing to go teach in Sweden), but hopefully helpful. . First picture is the cherry tree gum once dissolved in hot water and strained through a simple metal tea strainer. I store it like this in a clean jar, with two drops of any prefered anti-microbial essential oil. This time I think I had grapefruit oil to hand. This is still too thick to use for making paint. I dilute it further, a spoonful at a time, in a smaller jar until it is a thin straw-coloured liquid, like shop-bought bottled gum arabic. For further refinement I would pass it through muslin, to remove any tiny debris, if I were working on a small scale, on parchment or with very fine pigments such as lapis lazuli. . . Picture two shows the remaining clumps of gum kept in a jar in my fridge. They are reusable and will be dissolved in good time when needed. I always forget quite how much medium a chunk of gum makes. Like gelatine sheets, it’s so surprising how it swells. . . Picture three is the copper oxide ink, recipe from @torontoinkcompany Make Ink book, coming along nicely. . . . Last picture is the blackest black iron gall ink, congealed and sitting in the pan until I get back next week. This waiting only improves it. I shall just add a little rain water, reheat it, strain and bottle it on my return. I use a metal sieve, but for refined ink, muslin, cheesecloth or coffee filter bags are best. I like the particulates, however, they give grain and texture to the tones. . . . #makeink #irongallinkmethod #oakgallinkmethod #irongallink #oakgallink #cherrytreegum #watercolourmedium #naturalartmaterials #naturalpaint #organicartist #wildart #artmaterials #ink #paint #copperoxideink #blackink #nowaste

Teaching quill pen, stick and feather brushes and ancient natural paint making at The Happy Pig free pub in Galway, Ireland, January 2017. Here I am holding a bowl of egg white and whipping it with a fork to make glair medium for paint. I love this medium, and it is often overlooked in favour of tempera, but they are both superb, and different. More on this in another post soon comparing the same pigments with different natural media. . . I had the pleasure of meeting our host Mark Boyle ‘the moneyless man’, a lovely guy who has created a wonderful place. Cannot believe this was over two years ago. I am looking forward to meeting him again during my May teaching visit. Apparently this afternoon of sharing my wild paints and tools features his new book, due out later this year. He has been living totally off-grid, no modern contrivances or electricity for a year, no cars, buses, phones... You can stay at The Happy Pig in return for helping out, and it’s really worth looking in if you are travelling in Ireland. Best to get in touch with him by old-school posted letter mail. . . #naturalpigments #naturalartmaterials #wildart #ochre #naturalpaint #quills #featherbrushes #organicartist #earthskills #artcourse #ireland #galway #homeschoolkids #thehappypig #markboyle #moneylessman #moneylessmanifesto #offgrid #glair #naturalpaintmedium #eggpaint #craftcourse #homeeducation

Soon be home. . . . #riverthames #boatlife #bow #wintertrees #frostymorning

Moonlit cherry tree wassail with brief singing, prosecco, and accompanied by a jet black kitten. That’s a first. This picture is brightened to show the tree form. Second picture unchanged. What a beautiful night sky, with a moon halo, and scudding clouds. Here, good company, 17 hrs of T’ai Chi shared this weekend. I am going to sleep well. . . . #wassail #cherrytree #moonlit #moonlight #oldways #tao

Harvesting cherry tree gum. It is paler and clear in the spring and summer, but this hardened piece is now being washed away and made spongy by rain, so it was worth gleaning now. I used a fungi knife, which is ideal in curve and size. The gum will be stored in a cool dry place and made into medium for paint. I’ll post photos of the finished medium once home. Thanks again to the cherry tree. When I have a wee drink tonight I shall wassail it... . . . #cherrytreegum #treegum #watercolourmedium #naturalpaint #naturalartmaterials #naturalmaterials #foraging #harvesting #gleaning #gratitude #cherrytree

Today’s classroom. . . . #outdoorlearning #moss #lichen #snowdrops #firtree #tao #wayofnature #naturalprocess

Raw and real, ochres and cherry tree gum, soon to become paints. My wonderful T’ai Chi and Wild Twins student Anja brought me these three earths back from Devon, and Dartington in particular. I am really looking forward to washing, grinding and mulling them into paints. The cherry tree which provides most of my watercolour and ink additive medium comes from this tree at another student’s house. I shall wassail it later, and pick another lump with care. It is so great to begin with the prima materia, the raw wild earth, and refine the method until the ‘desired constellation appears’ (Bjork’s wonderful phrase). Thanks to all my pigment bringers and cherry tree growers. . . . #wildart #wildmaterials #ochre #rawearth #naturalartmaterials #gifteconomy #naturalpaints #makepaint #treegum #artmaterials #ancientartmaterials

Lichen, fossil, megalith. Burren flashback to 2017. . . . #fossil #lichen #rock #megalith #prehistoric #burren #ireland #flashback

Tiny drawings. Moonrise and LED lights. Train delayed by over an hour. Luckily I usually carry a sketchbook, notebook and pencil. . . #tinydrawing #moonrise #dusk #trainjourney #arbroath #pencildrawing #sketchbook

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