Frances Culshaw

"When you touch upon Trees, you touch my Mad String."

So said Robert Marsham, a naturalist living in the 1700s. I use his words to illustrate my passion for trees and my desire to capture their subtle power and complex beauty on canvas.

My recent paintings are created with earth I have collected from around the UK. This involves drying, grinding and sieving the earth, then mixing it with water and egg yolk to bind it into a usable paint. A surprising number of colours can be created from earth, although green earth is scarce, and I have not yet found a convincing blue.