Down to Earth, a retrospective, by Celia Wilson

I discovered pigments when my subject matter concerned a farmed landscape and I noticed red soil in a roadside drain.  This led to experimenting with paint making, as luckily I had completed a University session on making tempera paint, which you make with an egg yolk binder. From the pigments I gather from roadside cuttings or rivers and beaches, I usually make watercolour paint, but have also made acrylic and oil paint. The characteristics and intrinsic qualities of these unrefined pigments can define place by linking their unique attributes to location.  I allow form and image to develop on the paper or canvas with the minimum of intent and intervention on the part of the artist, to allow the materiality of the paint to express itself.