Thank you to APT Gallery for providing us with a fantastic space to work in. It was so good to be able to talk and try things out on the Gallery walls and to explore the local area finding objects and inspiration. We visited the Thames shore at Deptford with mudlarker and fellow Ground Work artist Mark Sowden acting as guide and identifying our finds. I used the time and space at APT to begin making pigments and paintings from things washed up on the Thames shore. I started with coal pebbles, eroded remnants of the material that powered the industries and heated the homes of London for centuries. Crushing and grinding these into powder and mixing the coal dust with gum arabic to make a black ink. I then poured this into Thames water on paper laid flat on the Gallery floor, making use of the space to make my largest works of this type so far. For more photos of our residency and our open day see Instagram blogs @ground_work_apt and @Samhodgeart
Coal Black Tides, Watercolour on Arches paper, made with coal pigment and water from the River Thames, October 2020
