CONTACT PAINTINGS: FURTHER THOUGHTS

On a previous post I discussed the process of ‘finishing’ or ‘completing’ the wrapped stone paintings I have been making-with the cairn on Harcles Hill. After retrieving the wrapped stone, I would take the canvas back to the studio, stretch it over a wooden panel, and apply an oil paint glaze. I’m now not convinced that this is the appropriate method.

The concept that underpins these Contact Paintings, is akin to what Donna Haraway describes as ‘becoming-with’. A making-with non-human agents. So this studio-based intervention at the end of my process might add in an unnecessary human-made step. Why not simply retrieve the canvass and acknowledge it’s own becoming-with the landscape. There is perhaps no need to ‘finish’ the painting, and perhaps the less human intervention, the better. I want the landscape itself to have more agency over the object, and for the painting to tell the story of a more-than-human community, rather than the outcome of individual expression.

I feel an inherent and irrational need to make the object resemble a ‘finished painting’ - whatever that means, or to make it look visually appealing in some way. Really, this doesn’t matter. It is beside the point whether it looks like an agreeable aesthetic object or not, more that it resembles the becoming-with that orchestrated it’s making. It only needs to be what it is.

CONTACT PAINTINGS 1&2

These first two experiments of what I’m calling contact paintings have now received a glaze made from liquin and small quantities of oil paint that exhibit some of the colours and tonal qualities I experienced on the moors. 

Both paintings started life as fabric wrapped around a stone, dipped in a bog, and buried within in a cairn for a week. They retain the intimacy and contact with the stone that remains now on the cairn, but now flattened and stretched over a piece of wood to become the living paintings they are now. 

As I write, there are two more paintings being started, left to fester on the moors. One is submerged in a deep bog and the other is left inside a cairn. 

PILGRIMS CROSS

I’ve been thinking about drawing as a way to store information about a walking route, after reading about the Australian Aboriginal practice of songlines, and the more western approach of creating memory palaces. 

Along my walk this afternoon I picked up a stone between Harcles Hill and Pilgrims Cross. At the site of the cross I sat and drew a pivotal moment of that walk from memory, using charcoal and chalk directly onto the stone. The drawing serves as a portal for the walk, and the specific conditions and memories from it. It is a making-with the land. 

CONTACT PAINTINGS

I’ve been initiating some paintings, making-with the cairn of Harcles Hill on Holcombe Moor. I want to explore painting-with the landscape, and methods that foreground contact over extract.

Walking from the foot of the hill past Harcles Hill Quarry, I picked up a triangular shaped stone and wrapped it in cloth. Along the walk I held the wrapped stone, exploring all the stone’s textures through the cloth with my fingers, contacting each part of it. When I arrived at the summit of Harcles Hill, I unwrapped the stone and submerged it in a bog, then wrapped it back up again. I then carefully placed it inside the cairn, burying it by placing other stones on top.

After leaving it for 7 days, I retrieved the stone this morning, the cloth having been completely frozen around it. I observed that it had been through many changes since I left it last week. It appeared to have been through a process of drying, absorbing, dying, and freezing. This last process of freezing held the cloth more tightly to the stone, further intensifying the sense of contact.

I unwrapped the stone and added it to the cairn in traditional fashion. Observing the cloth on its own, it seemed worn and weathered, yet still maintaining much of the essential characteristics of its raw material before it came to know the stone. My plan now is to take this to the studio and apply a layer of tinted glaze, to seal in the contact and finish the painting.

The painting tells a story of contact with this particular cairn on Holcombe Moor, through the stone, the cloth, the bog, the weather, and me. The painting becomes the story of a more-than-human community, rather than the outcome of individual expression. It is a painting made-with the landscape.

I left a second stone in the cairn before leaving, this time wrapped in canvas, and with the complete wrapped stone submerged within a bog before burying, to hopefully receive more information from the mud and peat. I will share the results upon retrieval.

MAY BE ON THE MOORS

This project will explore the stretch of moorlands between Holcombe and Helmshore, with a special interest in 5 specific sites and the land between them. These sites are Robin Hood’s Well, Ellen Strange Memorial, Bull Hill, Pilgrim’s Cross, and the cairn at Harcles Hill (listed on the map as ‘Holcombe Moor’).

Over the next 5 weeks I will be developing some practical and theoretical research to inform the work. I will be looking at post-human and post-colonial concerns with the land, and the entanglement of human stories with more-than-human energies within the landscape. The practical research will include drawings, paintings, photography, and performance, all initiated on-site and in collaboration with nonhumans.

After this initial phase of the research, there will be a mark-making walk on each of the 5 Sundays of May 2026, in collaboration with Altogether Otherwise. These walks will be open for anyone and everyone who is able to traverse the often-challenging terrain of Holcombe Moor. More information about the walks and how to book on to them will be released nearer the time.

The work made during the walks in May will be exhibited in Altogether Otherwise in Summer 2026, along with a cut-and-paste exhibition catalogue. Following the exhibition, there will be an evaluation and the submission of a paper to peer-reviewed journal.

I will be sharing all findings here, but please do get in touch if you want to know more, or have an idea you want to share.

Here’s the timeline

November / December 2025 – Initial 5-week exploration of theories, ideas, and practical concerns.

May 2026 – Co-collaborative mark-making walks every Sunday during May.

Summer 2026 – Exhibition at Altogether Otherwise.

Autumn 2026 – Evaluation and writing-up.

MAY BE ON THE MOORS

Holcombe Moor is a fascinating place. A wilderness punctuated with artefacts, stories, and lore. MAY BE ON THE MOORS is a new project that delves into the particularities of this landscape through walking, mark-making, and collaborating with more-than-human energies. An hauntology of place. Beginning now, coming for you in May.