Pete Ward
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Email: pete-ward@live.co.uk
Website: www.intim8ecology.wordpress.com Website: www.peterwardearth.carbonmade.com Website: www.peterward-artist-illustrator.co.uk Artist Statement
Can a single action be creatively catalytic in effort and effect?
May we truly listen to the wind and waves and utter her words for all the world? Is a prayer from the heart as large as a shout in a crowd? As an ecological artist my practice is rooted in a sense of our evolving relationships within the animate earth. Art, as a holistic interdisciplinary process, is the means through which I investigate and share these relationships. It is an intimate response to the social and ecological conditions of our age. Since people began to make marks and symbols to express our relationship in the world we have used pigments from the earth. Whether painting on cave walls or our bodies we have found ways of utilising colours from the resources available in our immediate surroundings. The work on show has been created using earth pigments gathered by hand from North Devon and Somerset, plus others from Australia exchanged with Aboriginal Elder Noel Butler during a recent visit to the UK. By simply mixing ground rocks and soil with suitable mediums such as water, linseed oil, egg yolk or PVA glue we may make paint. Until the mid 19th Century with the discovery of synthetically derived pigments all artists materials were derived from natural sources. The revelation of giving ourselves permission to gather materials from our environment and to use them (responsibly) is a surprisingly powerful statement against the climate of consumerism and corporate supply we are presently experiencing. It is hoped that the use of local materials and an understanding of their history and formation may bring us, in a small way, to a new appreciation of our environment and the earth as a whole. 
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beach graffiti, northam (earth pigments, p. ward 2010)
devon beach ii, oil on driftwood, 26x28cm, 2009
creativity carnival (earth pigments + linseed oil on board;122x77cm;2009)
umber mandala (earth pigments + pva on canvas; 92x92cm; 2009)
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About CMR
CMR is an artist-led
initiative designed to create a community of artists who will exhibit
and flourish within this three storey building. It is a voluntary-run organisation and project. We aim to be all
inclusive; we aim to encourage adventurous work that will respond and
challenge not only to CMR’s various spaces but also the broader
Contemporary Art landscape of Cornwall.
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Want to be involved?
Membership is open to artists, makers, curators, writers and thinkers at all stages of their careers who are interested in developing a rigorous, critically engaged level of contemporary practice, and who are interested in actively contributing to help promote the overall well-being of the project.
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