Featured Artist Series

This is part of a series of blogs featuring inspiring artists and craft people who work with local natural materials.

I grew up in Durham, in the North of England and I live in a Santa Lucia, a small village in the South of Spain. This informs the way I work since working with the plants around me was a process of learning, familiarising and integrating myself with my surrounding environment. Getting to know the species that I share space with, observing patterns of growth and paying attention to what happens around me. In my arts practice I use materials that I encounter, exploring narratives of place through material and processes.

I enjoy the stories that reveal themselves when learning about plants. Morning glory is an introduced garden ornamental and invasive plant that has taken strangulating hold here; the beautiful glowing iridescent purple blue flowers smother the local plants. I have used it to make inks and dyes and have used the vines to weave. I use what is abundant and until now didn’t grow any dye plants, I would have to investigate the appropriateness of introducing any plants and have been happy so far to explore what already exists here.

One of my favourite colour sources is from acebuche, small wild olives which make purple, blue, pink and red. I probably started investigating dye plants because of this, seeing the deep colour stains under the acebuche trees, and in the bird droppings – I thought that if it still retains the purple colour after being processed through the body of a bird then it is an interesting colour! And it is a very sort of authentic expression of this place, the wild olive trees are ancient rooted. Oxalis flowers paint the countryside yellow in spring and make a deep sunshine yellow that I love. I am lucky to have an abundance of walnut, avocado and pomegranate trees too.

I have a special affinity with certain plants like Alexanders, they don’t make the strongest dye colour but I like it very much and I love to see them appear each year. I had no interest in working with insect dyes but prickly pear cactuses and cochineal are quite common in this area – both are considered invasive species and beginning to learn about them was like opening a book about history, colour trade and ecology which I found fascinating. When a neighbour gave me cochineal covered leaves from a dead cactus curiosity got the better of me and I was astounded by the deep colours that I extracted.

The dome was an idea I had when I first began to experiment with plant colours. I would create libraries of colour swatches. I liked to play, experiment, process and mostly just enjoyed to see the expanding colour palette. I would cover my walls in colour swatches and samples. I saw them as a sort of abstract map of the local environment, since I was only using what grew around me.

In seeing the collections of colours I wanted to create a space where they could be contemplated together as a whole, a landscape colour map. I had previously worked a lot with geometric shapes, I was interested in patterns of growth and the dome was a good resolution in bringing these ideas together. There was a long process of gathering and dyeing. I learned how to dye better mid way through and if I would start again now I would probably have much stronger colours but I like how it is also exists as testament to my learning process and experiments.

To make the dome was great experience, to start with an idea and see it fully realised (with a global pandemic in the middle) yet not quite knowing until it is completed how it will look and feel. It was first mounted by my home where it was created and felt harmonious. The colours distilled from the plants dialoguing with the same plants in the environment. To view it from outside and then to experience it inside, to see the sun and reflections of plants through the material was quite special. It is currently exhibited by the Barbate river that flows through this area. From there I would like to take it to different landscapes in this area, to inhabit the environment from which it was created.

I made a quilt with the scraps of material leftover from the dome which was a really positive personal experience. I had very little sewing skill or knowledge before I started but was able to make what would become a very precious object to me. It was a process of accepting imperfection; lots of the triangles don’t meet as they should, there are ruffles, pleats, wonky stitches but the overall whole is beautiful. That was a huge lesson or me. I want to sleep in the dome with the quilt when spring comes and it is dry and warmer. I call the work Botanical Dreams, this was what I had named it from the beginning, before I’d even thought to make a quilt so it is fitting that the quilt became part of the dream.

I continue to experiment with different ways of working with plants. I have been experimenting with watercolours from plant pigments and made charcoal from willow which was really inspiring. I love the seasonal nature of working with plants and the constancy, if I miss something it will come around again. I am currently working on a couple of projects, about moth biodiversity and another about urban insectivorous birds. They are quite different but are actually both connected to plants – when looking at moths it is relevant to look at available plant food sources and the insectivorous birds migrate following the abundance of insects which come with Spring and the blossoming of plants – everything is connected and the network of relationships with plant life is fascinating and complex.

My work can be seen on my website: https://sophietwiss.com/

I keep a (not so constant) Instagram account at: _stwiss_