Ausencias
The Ausencia (’Absence’) paintings are made with earth pigments from Andalusia, collected during a residency at Joya AiR. Pale shades of soil, mixed with casein (milk-based binder) and honey, are layered onto wood from abandoned floorboards. The images – of things that I have lost – emerge only partially and in negative, through a process of removing the paint.
The Ausencia (’Absence’) paintings are made with earth pigments from Andalusia, collected during a residency at Joya AiR. Pale shades of soil, mixed with casein (milk-based binder) and honey, are layered onto wood from abandoned floorboards. The images – of things that I have lost – emerge only partially and in negative, through a process of removing the paint.
Ausencia i (almond field)
2023
earth pigment, casein and holm oak honey on salvaged wood
13 x 9cm
These paintings are small, about the size of a paperback book. Like icons, they are portable. Like fossils, each one describes something through the space that it leaves, the way that the earth used to hold it. These are after-images from the borderline, transitional – a process of remembering that is both calling-back and letting-go.
Ausencia ii (sundial); Ausencia xvi (Camino de la Luna)
Ausencia vi (Nostalgie); Ausencia vii (pistachio erosion)
Ausencia xii (pistachio erosion); Ausencia xi (Anna’s salmon)
Ausencia viii (bird path); detail
Ausencia xv (under roots); Ausencia xiii (tributary wash)
Ausencia xvi (blue-green); detail