Sophie Holliday

Inspired by Jessica Warboys's exhibition at the Tate St Ives, I decided to experiment with creating my own sea canvases in Mousehole harbour. I used the sea, sand and rocks to move the pigment across the canvas, allowing the land to create impressions. This was my first experience creating a large artwork in a public place and a group of women walking by asked why I was washing my bed sheets in the sea...😄 Then left it to dry across the rocks in the sun. I enjoyed the process and completed two canvases, I was surprised by the intensity of the colours and the rough texture added by the sand.

Well... Today was a bit of a disaster. I wanted to find a way to capture textures and objects so decided to experiment with plaster casting. After cutting out the base of a plastic food container, I pushed it into the sand and pressed seaweed, a chain and stone into the sand to create an impression. I struggled to mix the plaster quick enough as it began to set before I poured it into the container. Not sure if it was because I used sea water! The sand didn't create as interesting forms as I thought it would - some of the detail was lost.  Final result - not as expected. I like how some of the sand remained on the plaster however the overall cast was not as defined an impression as I would have liked.

I have noticed many of the textured surfaces around Mousehole and really liked the shape and colour of the harbour wall. Initially I used paper and graphite to create a rubbing. However, this technique didn't capture the texture of the wall as well as I wanted. I decided to use a piece of canvas vertically pinned to the wall. As it was a windy day I had to fill a cardboard tube with sand and attach it to the bottom of the canvas. Using a sponge roller and acrylic paint, allowed me to produce a large scale rubbing, highlighting the colours and textures. To finish, I added black paint to show the gaps between the granite blocks.

Arrived at Mousehole Cornwall - a great harbour to create some rusting samples.