Beth Sykes Art

Merveille du Jour, Griposia aprilina.
On a crisp morning with a local amateur moth-trapper a few weeks ago, this was one of our visitors. I couldn’t resist painting it, so incredibly beautiful and fascinating to know the huge range of moths that visit our gardens here in the UK

Close-ups of my painting The Cairngorm Range from Loch Morlich

The Cairngorm Range from Loch Morlich.
Watercolour and pen on paper.
30 x 80cm
November 2023.
It is complete! My comission for my lovely friends in the Cairngorms. I had so much fun doing this, reminiscing on a fantastic six months working in these mountains and forests with wonderful people. I can’t wait to be back 🏔️🌳🤎

FOR SALE!
£75 + postage.
Please message me or leave a comment so I can message you privately for more information if you’re interested! Each of these Mud Dippings that were exhibited in my end of degree exhibition are for sale, each for £75. Due to the fact these were exhibited, these mud dippings come mounted on foamboard (which is recessed behind the artwork and attached using a spray glue) I do have other Mud Dippings which are unmounted and the possibility to make Mud Dippings to order (bear in mind that it is impossible to create a particular pattern due to the organic nature of the process!).
Size: 30 x 42cm.
Mud on 300gsm watercolour paper mounted on foamboard.

‘Mud Dippings, Oxfordshire’.
January - April 2022. Exhibit.
Mud on watercolour paper.
30 x 42cm.
This is the other half of my exhibition as part of the degree show cohort. This part of my exhibition consists of 10 mud dippings (swipe to see close ups) made using mud and water from the River Cherwell. Each mud dipping has a different reaction to the paper and the process. Watercolour paper has been used as the paper has to withstand exposure to water without ripping. The mud dippings are a visualisation of the movements that go unseen beneath the surface of the water.

‘Underwater and Overland, Reflections of the River Cherwell’.
January - April 2022. Exhibit.
Steel plates x3.
40 x 40cm.
Three prints taken from the steel metal plates.
And
‘Tributaries of the River Cherwell’.
January - April 2022. Exhibit.
20 x 20cm.
This is half of my exhibition as part of the degree show cohort. This part of my exhibition consists of three metal plates which were submerged in the River Cherwell for approximately two months. The plates were then taken into an artistic process of printmaking and etching. Prints (exhibited alongside the plates) were taken from the plates at each stage of the process. The smaller 20 x 20cm plates were also submerged in tributaries of the River Cherwell for approximately three months. These plates are exhibited to show the raw, natural beauty of natures touch on artistic materials.

‘River Cherwell Etching’.
January 2022.
Print taken from an etched steel metal plate.
40 x 40cm.
To begin this semester of my final year of Fine Art at Oxford Brookes I created a print from a plate of metal that I had etched the course of the River Cherwell onto. My practice combines natural processes with artistic processes. Exploring the environment through mark making, mapping, drawing, walking and other means to gain an understanding of unseen processes happening, like the movements of water beneath the surface. To focus my practice, I’ve chosen the River Cherwell, close to home, to introduce my materials to nature. This print is just the beginning of an experimentation into rust, the topography of the land, and combining my marks with the marks of nature.

‘Steel marked by nature’.
September - December 2021.
Natural marks made on steel in water and underground.
Metal sheets after being removed from the water for a few weeks. One of my favourite things about this project and working with nature is that there is a process of continual change which can be seen by these pics taken a few weeks after the metal was removed from the water.

‘Steel marked by nature’.
September - December 2021.
Natural marks made on steel in water and underground.
This is the main part of my project last semester and this semester. I have been working with metal, steel as it is fast-reacting, to obtain marks made by nature. My aim is to facilitate nature to visualise its own beauty on artistic materials.

‘Original Mud Dippings’.
October 2021.
Mud on watercolour paper.
My original mud dippings were made in a puddle. I quickly found that the marks made were unsatisfactory. I’ve recently made more mud dippings with a new techinque (you’ll see these soon!).

‘Drawing on OS Map’.
November 2021.
Charcoal on OS map.
A charcoal landscape drawing done on a walk and transferred onto an OS map. I love the combination of my drawn lines of the landscape with the lines of the map.

‘Fragments and Walking Lines’.
November 2021.
Pen and tracing paper collage on OS map.
A pen drawing of a walking line together with a collage of tracing paper fragments of printed marks collected from the environment.

‘Crows Cawing’.
November 2021.
Acrylic paint on OS map.
Happenings and sounds from a walk in my local area, stamped and painted on a local OS map. I used the colours from the map to try and make the words part of the aerial landscape.

‘Skyline Walk on local OS map’.
December 2021.
Charcoal on OS map.
As part of my experiments with layering of drawings of the landscape, I wanted to bring in maps. I have an obsession with maps, old and new, different ones which show the topography or geology. I think there’s so much to learn about a landscape that you can physically experience by walking through it but by learning from materials like maps and bringing that into my own work I can create a better understanding of my environment.

‘Mud Book’.
September - December 2021.
Handmade book with mud and natural materials.
As part of experiencing the landscape, I began using natural materials, including mud, berries, leaves, to create pigment and drawings directly onto paper whilst outside.

‘Walking Books’.
September - December 2021.
Handmade book with charcoal line drawing.
One of my mapping books from walking. This book consists of multiple papers stitched together. The book has no necessary form and can be opened and explored from any direction. The drawing is a charcoal line drawing from one of my walks. It is a bit different because the drawing was made without taking the charcoal off the page, thus the drawing is both the direction and my movements whilst walking.

‘Walking Books’.
September - December 2021.
Handmade book with cloth cover. Mixed media drawings and text.
One of my mapping books from walking. Mixed media used to draw lines of walking, skylines, records of birds and animals seen whilst walking.

‘Pinhole Photography’.
September - December 2021.
Pinhole photographs.
As part of exploring the landscape and looking at it through different mediums, I used pinhole photography to take photographs of the environment selectively. Pinhole photography is done using a pinhole camera, a camera without a lens but just with a tiny apeture. It is basically a light-proof box with a small hole in one side. The photographic paper is put into this box and then exposed by removing tape from the aperture. Sometimes a photograph can take up to 20 minutes or more depending on the lighting of the day and the location you are taking the photograph. Lots of these photographs were very successful and caught the landscapes that I was walking through very well but I decided against carrying this technique forwards because, though I love it, it is extremely time consuming and I wanted to focus on other things.

‘9 in 1’.
October 2021.
Charcoal on board.
60 x 60cm.
The finished drawing from the behind-the-scenes post yesterday!

‘Board Drawing in the Dark’.
October 2021.
Charcoal on board.
60 x 60cm.

‘Board Drawings’.
October 2021.
Charcoal on board.
30 x 30cm.

‘Concertina walks’.
September - December 2021.
Charcoal, thread, oil pastel, stone pigment, fine liner pen on paper.
20 x 42cm.
Two of my larger scale concertinas from my walks.

‘Long walk drawings’.
September - December 2021.
70 x 400cm.
As part of my walking practice, I used concertina books (you can see those in a post 7 posts ago). In the concertina books I recorded the birds that I saw, sounds that I heard, the skyline, pathline, and my own walking line. On this brown paper roll I expanded one of the concertinas to span along the length of 4m. It was really interesting to do this and photograph it from different angles because the landscape started to reveal itself in different ways. Like this first image, I held the camera so that it could look down one of the lines I had drawn, abstracting it to look like the path of a river or the path as you would see whilst walking…