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Residency

Zen Martian Garden

By Cally James MA and Tim Healey

  

Tim Healey- Painter

Cally James MA- Ceramic and Sculptural Artist

Textured paint on canvas with Ceramics

Zen Martian Garden – The Purple Collection

Tim Healey

Zen Martian Garden – The Red Sky Collection

Cally James MA

Tim Healey- Painter and  Cally James - Ceramic Artist have come together for the Online Collaboration with a mutual interest in nature. The initial meeting sparked a conversation about the warmth of the colours on Mars. This became the focus of their project. Tim and Cally continue to explore materiality, surface, texture and take inspiration from natural forms such as The Moeraki Boulders, formations of bark and  Kandinsky - Several circles. Following several virtual meetings and a platform to share visual ideas they are working on ‘Zen Martian Garden’ combining an interplay of objects and elements of both their practices. Cally and Tim are creating a mini universe combining ceramic and painting. 

The Process

  • Cally James MA

Cally experimented with different clay types beginning to think about surface texture and relating it to a natural theme.

Tree bark texture created using crank clay .

Influenced by The weather project’, 2003, Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London Cally used Acrylic paint to experiment with colour.

The painting process

  • Tim Healey
Tim experimented with colour and texture.
Texture, colour and the illusion of water.

The Joining of forces.

Cally and Tim worked together photographing the Zen Martian Garden using different exposures of light and many compositions before the final selection was decided.

Ceramic and Acrylic painting amalgamation.

  • Day Light Photography
  • Artificial light photography
  • Dark Room Photography

Choosing the background colours presented more questions than answers; should we leave it as the image was captured or manipulate the colours to agree with our original idea of a Martian Garden?

Cally James MA -Textured Ceramic on textured canvas.
Cally James MA -Moeraki Boulders with a touch of gold.

The next image captured colour, texture and light this informed the decisions making.

Textured Ceramic coloured with oxides on painted canvas