This series of three paintings ‘Lossenham Triptych’ started with a chalk ground laid on a medium weave canvas. As with other pieces created as part of the Lossenham residency the paintings are created from the minerals foraged from Lossenham. However by using material foraged from the fields surrounding the Priory my hope was that these paintings would have particular connection to the Carmelite Priory site.

Traditionally oil paintings have a gesso ground painted over the canvas in order to seal and protect the canvas from the destructive nature of the oil. For this series I had decided the gesso ground for the paintings would be made from the waste chalk collected when carving the sculpture ‘Altar Stones’. These chalk stones were found around the Priory site and I felt this would create a close material and spiritual connection with the Priory.

The chalk was worked into a fine powder and mixed with a natural glue and a number of coats of the ground were then painted onto three canvases.

The surface of these canvases took on the appearance and soft colour of a medieval church fresco wall prompting me to leave areas of the ground paint free and expose the ground colour as part of the composition, reinforcing the material and spiritual connection with the Priory.