My fascination with beach-combed objects stems from the fact that man-made items enter the sea at a place and time unknown. At this stage, they are often useful, in good condition and are similar to many many other such times. By the time, I retrieve them from the shoreline they are no longer of any use, they are worn and distressed by time and tide, and they are unique. It is the alteration that occurs during this unspecified time period that interests me – it raises so many unanswerable questions: When did it enter the sea, why and how? How long has it been in the sea? How far has it travelled?
One particular fascination is brushes. I find many plastic brush handles but more interesting are the bone or wooden ones. These sometimes present with bristles, whole or partly intact, but the really interesting ones no longer have bristles, just the holes where bristles once were.
I like the contrast between the worn finish and the precision of the holes. I am starting to explore this idea further, combining the found with the made; the old with the new; the perfect with the imperfect.
These three pieces combine hand made paper with found elements. I’d love your feedback!
At the end of the day, I was set two challenges – firstly, to try (for the first time) working with oil paint and the other was to think about working both very small and very large.
Helen Frost Artist 