Yesterday I was out in the tundra, tunturi, and marvelling at the rolling landscape and misty backdrop of fells beyond, it seemed almost barren, where each element stood out by contrast, from little frogs to flowing water leading to a waterfall… All the way along I was admiring the splashes of yellows, oranges and reds of the ground cover – e.g. in Bilberry / Mustikka (leaves go bright red) and low shrubs – spread out and sometimes blending together, and when you look up close, the groundcover is also now full of berries!
Part of most of my days are spent carrying out various tests with the natural materials I have collected, small samples from nearby and along my hiking routes. In the case of berries I’ve found, some were familiar, but in two cases I was berry confused. For example thus the correction on my first post – as it turns out, after having a chat in the Biological Station, what I had collected in fact was Dwarf Cornel / Ruohokanukka, which is growing all over here (where there are trees), it’s berries bright red and leaves now turning dark red, contributing wonderfully to fall colours on the ground, maaruska. Also, the test of eating a little red berry, and tasting the sourness, confirmed that it was indeed Lingonberry / Puolukka (as opposed to Bearberry / Sianpuolukka, looking extremely similar).
In working with these samples, I’m interested in using also tools that have a connection with this environment. For example today I put together a brush, using driftwood (from the lake shore) and Cottongrass (found in the tundra), along with regular thread, creating an implement which can also be used on the other end for a hard tip. I tested both ends with charcoal (collected from different fire pits), using a flat side of a rock, first rubbing on the charcoal then mixing in some water and applying this to paper.
For more artist information, please see my website: scaldn.net