Reimagined landscapes

During lockdown earlier this year, artist and photographer Joseph Wright found new ways of capturing landscapes, all the while never venturing more than than 10ft from his back door

All artwork by Joseph Wright

Joseph, how would you describe yourself as an artist? 

As a visual narrator of inner and outer landscapes. My aims have been to reveal stories of the land and how we inhabit and respond to it, in part, developed through my own lifelong relationship with the countryside and edgelands. I seek to enquire whether the beauty and our connectedness to nature can be found in the least expected and often neglected places. The places often ignored because of our idealised perception of the pastoral and sublime landscape.

How did this change during lockdown?  

Fundamentally, my objectives remain the same – my fascination and enquiry of the landscape continues unabated. But, while lockdown may have physically hemmed me in, my mind remained free to wander. In that way, lockdown directed me to focus on my inner expression of landscape, more so than that of the outer one visible to me.

Tell us about your recent series 'Study of the Landscape'.

The series was born out of an almost obsessive need to continue to remain creative and somehow escape lockdown and stay connected to the environments I was now denied access to. I still wanted to work within the loose confines of photographic processes, exploring their simplest forms – subject, light and a receptive material. 

One of my experiments was to explore more direct physical manipulation of the cyanotype, and found I was able to create abstract expressions of landscape forms. These forms constantly colour shifted as the UV light from the sun caused reactions in the cyanotype sensitiser materials, creating image sequences that often spanned many days of exposure to the elements. In some sense these works continue to live and thrive, each time they are exposed to light they morph, albeit less each time – perhaps a metaphor for the virus.

I continued to develop the process further and allowed my imagination to run wild, bringing together memories of landscapes visited, emotional responses to the pandemic and climatic situations, re-imagining the landscape in my mind’s eye. The only limit being that of my imagination and not the physical confines of the lockdown. As Dilgo Rinpoche one said, “It is our mind, and that alone, that chains us or sets us free.” 

Moving forward, how do you think your work will evolve? 

The biggest takeaway for me in creating this series has been to experiment more, relishing the many failures as a necessary step in evolving. Bringing together different facets of my work and approach, mashing them up to keep things fresh. I’ve no doubt all of this will lead to a new spell of creativity.

What's on your bedside table?

My Kindle and an ever-changing small stack of books, just now; Landscape & Memory by Simon Schama, Mirrors Message & Manifestations by Minor White and usually something from the ever excellent Corbel Stone Press.

See more of Joseph’s work at josephwright.co.uk and on Instagram @joearwright

Meet the maker: Cut By Beam

One of our rewards for our crowdfunding campaign to send issue 10 to print are a pair of Trail Tea enamel mugs inspired by foraged teas you can make in the great outdoors. These mugs were engraved by Cut By Beam in their Cornish studio – join us as we find out more about the cutting process, their experience of lockdown, and the strangest object they’ve ever etched…

Images by Jenna Foxton

Tell us about Cut By Beam - who are you and what do you do?

Cut By Beam is a laser cutting business based near Falmouth, Cornwall. We’re an all-female team of four. I originally set things up about six years ago – my first workshop was a small, cold, farm building and I had one machine. Now we have four laser cutters and can handle a diverse range of jobs, for individuals as well as small to large businesses. We get to work with some incredibly talented clients - I discover more and more every week!

Take us through the cutting process – please do go into lots of geeky detail, we love that.

The laser cutters do all the cleverest bits but the prep-work beforehand can be quite creative. That might mean discussing ideas with clients, drawing up artwork for them and sourcing materials. We then program the machine with all the details it needs to know, for example the type - whether that’s wood, leather, rubber, stone, glass, enamel, etc, – the thickness and size of the material – from something just a few centimetres wide to over a few metres. The design is picked up from a folder on our server and then we tell the machine where to position the job on the laser bed and how many items to cut or etch. We can cut right through material or just etch or score the surface.

Were there any challenges to cutting the Trail Tea designs?

Enamel Mugs are one of our most popular items – we have an online store where people can order them individually, or we can take bulk orders like we did for Ernest. As we do these mugs all the time, we didn’t have any particular challenges on this job. The difference with etching curved surfaces, and in order to get an even finish, is that we have to rig up a rotary arm to turn as the laser does its work. Each mug has to be put on the machine individually so it can be quite labour intensive as there’s a change-over pretty regularly.

What's the most surprising thing you've ever etched?

Various things spring to mind. When we were based in our last farm building, we were asked to have our laser cutting included as part of a video to help promote the NASS music festival. A team came to make that in our workshop whilst we etched a skateboard for them. It was used to reveal the headlining act for that year.

We've also etched some bird skulls for a heavy metal band’s music video. That was definitely the strangest thing. One of the jobs we’re most proud of was when we made thousands of wooden cards for National Geographic. They wanted them to drop into the Ganges and help them trace the flow of plastic down the river.

Where do you turn for inspiration, particularly when you're having a creative lull?

Ideas can come from various sources but they’re usually from other creative businesses and individuals that we either work with or follow. It might be a podcast, a book or a talk we’ve listened to. A good example from last year was listening to Mark Jenkins, Director of the Cornish film Bait, who talked about how much more successful he felt his film had been because he had been on such a tight budget. Adversity can be the mother of invention and I was motivated by hearing that at a point where we were juggling decisions on whether to invest in a new machine or make existing ones work better.

What have you taken away from the lockdown experience?

We’ve been grateful to have enough work to keep us going throughout lockdown, though things were initially scaled back. We used the spare time to work ‘on’ our business rather than just ‘in’ it which, under normal circumstances, we find a challenge to make the time to do. We’re hoping to put in for B-Corp recognition soon, so we did some work towards that application. Although the uncertainty of the Covid-19 period has obviously been unsettling, we’ve enjoyed the chance to ‘breath’ a little and take stock of what is important to us as a business, which is staying true to our sustainable ethics and striving towards a healthy life/work balance.

Tell us about your work space - how does it reflect you as a team?

There are usually two or three of us on site at any one time. And then one or two working from home doing admin. The workshop is mainly just one large room and we’ve set it up so that we can easily work as a team in what could still be quite a tight space if we hadn’t planned it out well. Everyone is connected via apps on laptops and phones, so even when we’re not physically together we know where we’re up to on any particular job. I would say that our workspace is almost as much an online world as a physical one. We use an app called monday.com to schedule and follow all jobs. This has really helped make things more efficient and is of course accessible from anywhere. At heart, however, we love the physical and practical nature of our work so I would say the workshop definitely reflects us well, with examples of our work alongside our tools, materials and machines. We made quite a few of the workshop fittings ourselves.

Why do you love what you do?

When I left uni, my ambition was to continue to live in Cornwall, have a dog, a Land Rover, my own business, become a World Champion gig rower and have a great work/life balance. That last one is still a bit of a work in progress but I’ve ticked all the rest off. With a company still in its growth phase, there’s always more to be done, but I love my work and the people I meet through it, so I regard myself as incredibly lucky.

To get your hands on our exclusive limited edition Trail Tea enamel mug gift set (£32), designed by Aidan Meighan and engraved by Cut By Beam, head over to our crowdfunding page.

Meet the maker: Aidan Meighan

For our crowdfunding campaign to send issue 10 to print, we asked long-standing Ernest contributor Aidan Meighan of Whereabouts Maps to design our Trail Tea enamel mugs inspired by foraged teas you can make in the great outdoors, including common gorse and Norway spruce. Join us as we enter Aidan’s Somerset studio and find out more about the illustrator and cartographer

Ernest Trail Tea mugs, engraved by Cut By Beam, designed by Aidan Meighan

Aidan, you designed the beautiful Trail Tea mugs for our crowdfunding campaign. Please take us through your design process.

When Ernest got in touch to discuss a 'trail tea' article for issue 10 I was excited as I love drawing plants! The conversation got even better when they told me about the brilliant engravers 'Cut By Beam'. By the time the conversation had reached its conclusion and I realised my plant illustrations were going to be engraved on enamel mugs for the upcoming crowdfunder, I was halfway out the garden door to take plant cuttings to draw from.

Where possible I like to draw from the real thing, but when this isn't possible, I try to find appropriate references in books or online.

I think it is important to cross reference as much as possible – if we all draw the first image on an internet search, before long all our drawings will start to look the same!

These plant drawings were really satisfying. Following out from the stem of the branch you organically fill in the forks, leaves, fruits and flowers. Just like with nature's methods, you end up with a completely unique structure.

You've been working with Ernest since issue 1 on a variety of features – what have been the highlights for you?

My favourite maps I've drawn for Ernest are probably 'Mapping Antarctic women', 'Brutalist London', 'Doggerland' and 'Scottish Bothies'. As for illustrations, I really enjoyed the 'The Egg Collectors of Skúvoy' triptych in issue 9, 'The Orford Merman' and a man being 'defenestrated' (thrown from a window) in Prague.

Aidan’s ‘Brutalist London’ map for issue 3 of Ernest

You describe yourself as a cartographer and illustrator – how did your love of maps begin?

Pattern and mark making have always been principal components of my style and this led to me being a good fit for map commissions in the early stages of my career. Over time I developed a reputation as a map maker. Nowadays most of my commissions are maps with an illustrative component.

I've loved looking at maps for a long time. They are a beautiful muddle of maths, science, politics, history and art. They can be fantasy or fiction, but every map takes you on a literal or metaphorical journey. I always find myself getting lost in maps, an irony that pleases me.

What's your favourite map ever made and why?

'Mapping Antarctic Women' was a project undertaken by humanitarian, writer and activist Carol Devine. Maps are often snapshots of history; changing landscapes, politics and territories. Often their agendas and inaccuracies can be carried forward from map to map. This map reevaluates history and pays overdue tribute to the brilliant women involved with the history of the continent. They have been forced out of the limelight by their male counterparts. Thankfully, this map challenges that! It was a joy to map the success of these inspirational women explorers, scientists and innovators.

Aidan’s ‘Mapping Antarctic Women’ for issue 7 of Ernest

Any other interesting projects you're working on at the moment?

I had quite a few jobs lined up before lockdown that were either paused or cancelled, so I'm relieved to see that work has slowly begun to pick up again.

Currently I'm gearing up to do some illustrations for issue 10 of Ernest, and I'm drawing a map of the Mediterranean coast for American travel magazine Stranger Guides.

Where do you turn for inspiration, particularly when you're in a creative lull?

My trick is to keep active and busy. If I'm overwhelmed by a project I usually find the best method is to reset my brain by going for a nice walk with my dog, a run or pottering about in my allotment.

My wife is also an illustrator and we both use each other as a sort of backboard to bounce and generate ideas off.

When I can, I visit exhibitions, and make the time to draw for pleasure – both of these are brilliant for inspiration. It can be tricky to motivate yourself when drawing is your 9 to 5, but it’s always rewarding when you commit.

What have you taken away from the lockdown experience?

It puts life into perspective. I could easily be anxious about work quietening down, but there are far more important things to focus on. It has made me very grateful for what I already have.

My wife and I have been relatively lucky living in the countryside, with each other and our dog for company.

It is mind boggling that the effects have been felt by almost every person across the globe, and in some ways that is unifying. I hope this is the beginning of a new chapter and that we can take positives away from the situation. We now have the opportunity to change the things that weren't working before.

I worry about ongoing mental health implications and worsening austerity. But countering this, I think there has already been a restored sense of community, self sustainability and enhanced recognition of shared challenges ahead such as our huge battle against climate change.

Tell us about your studio space. How does it reflect you?

We moved into a new house in March and one of the silver linings of lockdown has been finding the time to decorate the house including our studio room.

We have two desks and a shared shelf of curiosities, trinkets and favourite books. In my book collection there are a lot of map books and atlases and of course a shelf dedicated to Ernest issues.

On the walls there is a 1960s leaflet unfolded to show illustrations of Swiss mountains, some Poole pottery plates and a Glastonbury Free Press poster from 2013 saying 'I love the smell of ink and paper in the morning'.

We also share the space with some of my favourite house plants including a purple shamrock, string of hearts and wilful rubber plant. All of which we have grown from cuttings, a hobby that has 'grown' out of control.

When my wife and I aren't taking it in turns to play music and podcasts the room gently vibrates to sound of our snoring dog Bryher. Bryher is a much cherished part of the team and is equal parts adorable and mad.

To get your hands on our exclusive limited edition Trail Tea enamel mug gift set (£32), designed by Aidan Meighan and engraved by Cut By Beam, head over to our crowdfunding page.

Enter the forest

Photographer Ellie Davies’ work explores the fabricated nature of landscape by making a variety of temporary, non-invasive interventions in the forest, placing the viewer in the gap between fantasy and reality. Her small interruptions have involved building structures out of found materials, creating pools of light on the forest floor and introducing starscapes taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Ellie tells us more about her spellbinding images...

Stars 8, and all images below, by Ellie Davies

I LOVE THE RANGE OF RESPONSES MY WORK GETS. Some find it really uplifting, others find it dark and sinister. I think that says more about the viewer than it does about the work. While the images explore my own experiences of the woods – and I have a very positive relationship with woodland – the forest is a place that can bring different levels of unease. You often see this played out in the way forests are portrayed in storytelling and mythology.

I THINK THIS HISTORICAL PORTRAYAL OF WOODLAND IN STORYTELLING came about when communities were living in tiny settlements within predominantly wooded landscapes, and to stray beyond the boundaries was potentially dangerous. Since then, woodlands have become an emotive metaphor for all sorts of other things, relating to the subconscious, and these get woven into stories that can really ignite the imagination.

I GREW UP IN THE NEW FOREST AND SPENT MOST OF MY CHILDHOOD PLAYING IN THE WOODS WITH MY TWIN SISTER. You need that in childhood. I think children’s memories of woodland are so vivid because these experiences are often their very first explorations and adventures, and this plays such an important part in children working out who they are and gaining self confidence.

IN THE NEW FOREST YOU FIND WONDERFULLY MATURE, ANCIENT WOODS FILLED WITH BEECH AND OAK. I get such a different feeling in these woods, compared with being in a pine plantation. This is often the starting point of a series – thinking about the atmosphere a particular area has, the colour palette, the composition of the space, and age and character of the trees.

AFTER MY SON’S BIRTH, I had a period of time where everything felt different. This was probably due to postnatal depression. I wanted to make new work and I missed being out in the woods all day, but I think as a new mum it’s hard to find the headspace to develop ideas, especially to execute them. I realised that I just had to trust in the process and let things take their course. During that year I made Another Green World, and when I look back at those images I think ‘God, what was I doing?’. I kind of love them but they’re not like anything else I’ve made. They’re strange, alien creatures. At the time I was feeling a bit like that about motherhood. Of course I loved my son enormously, but nothing about motherhood was how I expected – it was all just alien. I suppose these things come out in my work and I can’t see it clearly until I look back later.

I LOVE DOING WHAT I DO, ESSENTIALLY GOING TO THE WOODS TO PLAY. My Between the Trees series was the most fun but also the most challenging to make. These images explore the nature and meaning of ‘forest’ by considering the experience of standing alone in the woods: the eerie sensation that time has slowed down, and that the forest and everything within it exists in a different state. I used smoke to fill the space between the trees, but I won’t tell you how I did it. It was a chaotic process and I probably looked very silly while I was doing it.

I’VE ALWAYS WANTED MY WORK TO BE SCULPTURAL AND HANDMADE; to make sure everything in the image was actually there in the woods, albeit temporarily.The Stars series was a departure from that. The idea first came to me when I was riding an escalator out of a London tube station at night – there was a display of lightbulbs in the window reflecting on the glass of the escalator.These amazing little flares of light against the black background looked like a starscape. I started to think about how I could recreate that photographically. I experimented with things like pricking holes in fabric and light shining through, but nothing quite worked. Then I realised that as it was stars I was trying to create, I should work with the real thing. I came across the Hubble Space Telescope images on the NASA website and I asked their permission to use them in my images. While Stars was an interesting departure, I don’t want to overuse Photoshop. I still feel that a big part of my work is the sculptural, handmade element.

FIRES WAS MY PROJECT LAST YEAR. Fire links modern man to the earliest inhabitants of Britain’s forests. With symbolic narratives spanning the human and natural world, it brings together the opposing themes of life and death, creation and destruction, love and loss, nature versus culture, and numerous other meanings we ascribe to it. The small fires present in my images cast the forest in a warm light, holding back the dark, bringing a sense of safety and comfort, temporarily altering it. A man-made fire must be built and lit, tended and fed. Its mere presence implies the existence of people and the human narrative remains despite their absence in the image. The viewer is invited to weave their own experience into the woodland, to sit down, be silent and still, and become a part of it.

I WORK WITH A SMALL CAMERA KIT – a Pentax 645Z, two lenses and a tripod. I can carry everything on my back or on my bike, and I’m free to walk or cycle wherever I want to go. In the past I’ve considered expanding my production – using lighting, assistants and bigger setups but in the end, I just love being on my own in the woods. A lot of it is trying to find that quiet connection – walking slowly, looking for specific places or ideas, or just waiting for inspiration to come.

This is an extract from an interview that originally featured in issue 9 of Ernest Journal. See more of Ellie’s work, including her latest series, Seascapes, at elliedavies.co.uk.

Copper and wax

Since the 1980s, Leeds-born artist Norman Ackroyd has lived in and worked from an old leather warehouse in Bermondsey, south London. There he produces his work on an early 20th-century printing press, including his stunning coastal landscapes.

Isle of Pabbay, Hebrides. All images by Norman Ackroyd

Norman Ackroyd’s semi-abstract etchings capture Britain’s craggy outcrops and wild seas in dramatic monochromes, using a technique called aquatint.

The meticulous process involves applying a fine powder of acid-resistant pine rosin onto the engraved copper plate, then immersing it in an acid bath where it produces large swathes of soft half-tone, giving a watercolour-like quality to the image.

Ackroyd etched many of his landscapes on a tour of the British Isles in the 1960s and 70s, yet they remain strikingly fresh and contemporary.

See more of Norman Ackroyd's work at normanackroyd.com