I was obviously working on this one metre square painting in 2013, while living in France. I really like it and left something of myself there…

So, here is a photograph of the painting, which is now the work.

I like using commonplace materials, bringing them in a found state to the studio and I prepared canvas painted with acrylic yellow ochre and left it to dry for a few days…

During this time, I was making steps down to the stream running by the studio and I needed one last plank of timber to front the top step. I came across a sawn-off scaffold board, which had a nail-plate on one end. The metal plate was jagged at the edges, not something to have protruding from a step, so I removed it. However, I felt attached to the nail-plate and compelled to save it…

So when the steps were complete, I took the nail-plate to the studio and instinctively placed it in position, on the canvas. I spent several hours thinking and experimenting how to attach it to the canvas. Should I introduce other materials? What to use? I was questioning and careful of my own process throughout. Should I work with the found object or make a photo-real painting of it(?) Bring the real thing into the white space, I heard myself say…

So here then is the ‘sculpture’ and to finish my tale, I decided to reference the timber of the stretcher and the metal of the nail plate, rather than introduce new materials and, with two lengths of fine wire and corner stretcher supports, I stitched the nail-plate to the canvas, bringing this humble found object to this art space.

Thank you for reading the back-story to Nail Plate

burning Birch is said to uplift the spirits. These Birch logs were in the log basket and drew my attention, so I took them to the studio…

Due to the Covid 19 situation, we were not able to take up our 2020 residency with the National Trust, at St Anthony Head, on the Roseland Peninsula, Cornwall. Therefore, instead, we made the 2020 edition from our home on Bodmin Moor. We made thirty-two in total (see below) and have chosen sixteen of these to make available for sale at: https://susanbennetta.com/work-for-sale/

We have just started working on our most recent edition of cyanotypes, from our home on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, UK. The first “test” set have cooked in the sun, had a very good wash and now drying overnight. We hope to complete the main body of work by the end of the week. Here’s a selection of photographs from the site, where we are working, more later…

Bodmin Moor is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and designated an International Dark Sky Landscape and we have decided to make our work, during this “lock-down” year, using sunlight and moonlight.

We are fortunate to be able to work from our home, here on the moor, with a stream and footpath running alongside the garden and hedge, set in a beautiful landscape; more to follow…

work in progress continued

Work in progress continued…

Midwinter Spring -“its own season ( T.S. Eliot)”, has its own season on Bodmin Moor, and each of these three paintings carries fragment, history, memory, sense of place, spirit and trace of other. Water from a stream by the studio is mixed with soluble oil paint and…

earth contains fragments of earth from the moor

water has a stream-water wash, between paint layers

flame carries ash from Christmas Day fire-pit flame

welcome Oud x

the latest collaborative project in this series is nearing completion, with a translation into the Cornish language…

deliberating on a return to this project…

after posting printed wooden blocks and net, I came across these beginnings; now an artists’ book…

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The work is inspired by ongoing research, to do the juxtaposition of found wire(mesh), sea and stone; movement, stillness, flashes of light.

So here they are hung horizontally and vertically. They could also be hung with spacing or as individual works (see earlier posting).

They are painted in water mixable oil paint and pigment, currently my mediums of choice, offering a flat and fat surface that can be delicately over-painted and cut into. I masked up the sides/edges of the canvases prior to painting so as to emphasis a boundary/ other dimension.