‘Tender’ is one of a series of landscape paintings concerned with environment and soil exhaustion.  The ground is compostable cornstarch (material made from corn or potatoes and used for food waste recycling bags), painted with vegetable dyes from food waste, water colours, water miscible oils, food supplements and earth pigments, and hand-sewn with silk.  It has seeds from plants considered to have medicinal properties embedded in it’s seams.  Delicate and fragile, ‘Tender’ references the thin layer of soil that life depends on, considering our relationship with land, nourishment and waste.  I wanted to think about break-down, time, self-care and care for the earth, regeneration and hope.  

Yarrow, camomile, dandelion, valerian and nettle seeds are embedded in the work.  Besides having soothing and healing properties, these plants are (along with oak bark and honey) constituents of a simple ‘herbal activator’ designed by Maye E. Bruce in the 1940s*.  Avoiding synthetic fertilisers, she created a cheap, accessible, organic activator from dried herbs to encourage disintegration and make compost to feed soil organisms in allotments and gardens.  

I hope the work will spill off the wall and breathe gently as people pass.

‘Common-Sense Compost Making’, Maye E. Bruce, 1946

​Dimensions 295x295cm

The virtual tour of John Moores Painting Prize 2020/21 can be seen here