These frescoes have been on the wall and off the wall. Twelve artworks have come out of one but have gone through many processes on the way. It all started out with a wall painting and has ended up in an exhibition in Northumberland called ‘Without Walls’. So, how did that come about?
Well, I made a fresco wall in my old studio (before I knew it would be my ‘old’ studio). You can’t put lime plaster on gypsum plasterboard, so I had to physically build a surface with wooden and metal lath and layers of cement, lime and sand. Then, I painted a fresco in six sections (giornati), based on a collage I had made during a residency at Merz Gallery, Dumfries and Galloway. I planned to remove it with the strappo technique and reuse the false wall for further projects. Unfortunately, we were chucked out of our studios by brutal landlords, so my first fresco there was also my last.
Strappo, which I learned with Patrizia Gioia in Rome during my QEST Scholarship in 2023 is a process, usually used by museums, whereby a fresco is removed from a wall and transferred to a portable, lightweight surface. Put simply, it is achieved with layers of glue and cloth. ‘Strappo’ means ‘to tear’ in Italian and that act removes the top layer of fresco from the wall.
In my new studio with Outer Spaces, I transferred it to a substrate of fine linen and calico with lime, glue and various aggregates (including ground up terracotta bricks and volcanic ash). After a waiting period, I steamed off the first (sacrificial) layer of cloth thus revealing the transferred fresco. There was a fair amount of erosion of the image and, surprisingly, the entire surface was covered in a myriad of tiny cracks. I think this is because I used too much aggregate in the mix. I could either abandon it or work with the cracks and erosion. I chose the latter.
The transferred image didn’t work as a whole so needed dividing. It took some time to work out where the cuts should be. In the end, I chose to make four large equal parts where the image was clearest and divide the rest into eight smaller equal parts for experimentation. I strengthened parts of the retained images with pigment mixed with beeswax or egg yolk, added some graphite and highlighted areas with gold or silver leaf. Finally, I added a piece of found wallpaper to one of them as collage. The four large ones needed little intervention as I wanted to keep a lot of the eroded areas.
The smaller pieces were more problematic. As so little of the original image came off cleanly, there wasn’t much to work with. The best way forward was to change the narrative. This was an excellent opportunity to get to grips with gilding which I learned with Carey Mortimer in Sardinia as part of my QEST Scholarship. My first attempts with these panels were careless and patchy but somehow this matched the cracked and eroded surface. As I went on, however, I gained more control of the technique and the gold started to go where it was told. I decided to base the invented images on vessels on tables, the original trees becoming folds in fabric. I added collage to these, too – some found paper and some old gel prints I had lurking in my portfolio. I felt an increasing sense of freedom with these, boldly juxtaposing precious metal with scraps of paper. They began to take on a sacred feel, like strange offerings.
These twelve frescoes (if I can still call them that) will be exhibited as part of Northumberland Heritage Doors Open weekend on the 7th and 8th September. The event, ‘Without Walls’ will showcase visual artists, poets and musicians and will be spread around various venues such as The Barn and stables at East Elrington Farm near Hexham, the Hearse House and Saint Marks Church in Ninebanks and Keenley Chapel, the oldest continually working Methodist chapel in the world. Thanks to Melinda McGarry for organising this.
