In October Artist Caroline Younger brings to us an exhibition of printed Weeds, Leaves, Lichen & Water!
Caroline Younger is from the peninsula in the West of Scotland where she lives.
The prints use weeds from the vegetable garden, lichen from the trees, shapes from the sea and colours from the weather to build a response to this particular place.
'My practice is rooted in the landscape of my home on the the West Coast of Scotland. A place of wind and water and rock, but also of trees and wild flowers and my vegetable garden.
The environment and the man made threats that beset it are a concern. I am engaged in community efforts to protect the Marine Protected Area where I live. In my work however the emphasis is on the complexity and variety of the natural world that is in danger of being lost.
I have developed a vocabulary of shapes from observing natural forms. These shapes are repeated and re-arranged, layered and worked over using water as a drawing medium and the ghosts of previous prints to indicate depths and shallows and the teeming life of the sea. I welcome the chance effects which are a feature of my process.
Printing straight from the plant has been a focus of my recent work. I enjoy the individuality of each grass, weed, leaf; each one particular at the same time as it stands for the whole class.
‘Weed’ is a classification that applies not to a type of plant, only those that have sown themselves somewhere that humans don’t want them. They are by their nature vigorous and successful. When I pull them out of my vegetable beds I choose these particular weeds to print as a memorial to the many I have thrown on the compost heap.
The leaves in this series are Docks that have been eaten by beetles. Each one consumed in a different pattern. The disintegration of the leaf is further compounded by the repeated process of going through the press.
Lichens are an ancient life form which can grow on almost any surface and in many environmental conditions. Those from which I have been printing are Tree Lungwort (Lobaria Pulmonaria). These prints are like maps that reference the islands that surround my home.
I studied sculpture but for now am enjoying printmaking.'
