Amanda Randall reflects on her Nest Residency

I had a great time in Helloland experimenting with making and photographing large paintings and drawings on the floor using natural pigments and mark making tools gathered from woodlands.

I wanted to photograph the works while they were wet and drying, so I needed to work out a camera rig and lighting for this. My idea was to use this as a participatory technique for children and community groups to make art which connects with nature, as well as for my own work. I hoped to combine these photographs digitally with tessellations, patterns and textures made or printed from twigs and stones. 

Could I re-use and wash off canvases to save paper? What other surfaces might be suitable?

To try out this idea I needed clear floor space in a heated studio so the paints would dry. The studio was perfect for this and I covered the floor in a tarp as the space needed to be kept clean.  I had a great time splashing mud about and testing different ‘brushes’. Washing and re-using the canvases proved to be impractical – rolls of recycled paper were a better support. Stencilling and printing onto small pieces of calico was also effective.

Andy Moore spent a morning with me showing me how to light and photograph the large paintings, and which lighting kit to buy. I was very grateful for this support – after a few false starts and equipment failures I managed to photograph all of the work myself – quite an achievement for a technophobe like me!

I have put these techniques into practice already with some Forest School groups that I lead. I’m hoping to use them with teenagers and adults soon as I’m currently planning a project focusing on the biodiversity of Ham Lands next to the river Thames, as well as a project about the flora of Earlsdon. The Nest residency would feed directly into this. 

In the end I didn’t have time to complete the digital element of the project I had planned – superimposing the drawings onto each other – but I think the analogue part was the most important and ultimately more useful for the community groups I plan to work with. 

Talking Birds is a great network of connected people. I learned a huge amount from the invaluable mentoring of Philippa Cross, who helped me with my Arts Council Project Grants application, and from Janet, Charlie, Derek, Frances and all the others. It is a very supportive organisation – I appreciated having the rare gift of time and space paid for to try things out, to make mistakes, fail and try again without judgement or pressure. I’m also very grateful that they were flexible and allowed me to take an unscheduled break of eight months in the middle of the residency when a family crisis demanded my time. 

On a very simple level it was great to have a warm, secure, well lit space to work in for part of the winter as I usually work out of doors. 

Thank you Talking Birds, you are amazing!