There’s something quite magical about the way Emma Cowan and Sarah Nicholson make art.
The Kauaeranga Valley-based artists are the creators of Wild Studio, an experimental research and art-teaching business.
Nature is their inspiration, their tool and their passion – for this duo an afternoon in the garden yields not only dinner, but also inks in a rainbow of colours, along with brushes, pens and other hand-made tools.
“We call it a research studio, we are researching ways to make all of our own art materials,” Emma said.
“We’ve always been gardeners, [and] I think it’s in our nature to be quite resourceful and thrifty.
“So looking at ways that we can make things ourselves rather than buying them has been our practice always. This new way of working has been really inspiring for us… There’s so many possibilities.”
Having spent much of their working lives as traditional artists – Sarah as a commercial illustrator and Emma in fine art and design – the pair said Wild Studio had also brought the joy back into their work.
“It’s really given me so much more inspiration,” Sarah said.
“Coming at it from this angle of creating everything from scratch ourselves, it’s so much fun. And there’s so much discovery and experimenting.”
Wild Studio began when the duo decided to try and distil the colours of nature into their work.
“We thought initially that we’d have kind of quite a neutral palette of orangey, yellow, earthy tones, but we’ve gotten the whole spectrum of colours, which has been really exciting for us,” Emma said.
“Blue is one of my colours, and I thought, well, that’s not going to be possible. But then I thought, well, indigo is made from a plant, so maybe I can.
“One of the brightest yellow and orange colours we get is from the weed [Montbretia] that grows in the valley, which I’ve been pulling out for years but now realise that you can make really cool colours from it.”
For Sarah, making their own tools was also a must.
“For painting with, they’re actually more satisfying to use than buying plastic brushes, and the pens just work really well with the inks, to the point where that’s what we prefer over other tools.”
The pair have spent countless hours experimenting and cataloguing their created materials. The technical data they have collected, from testing the paints for colourfastness, longevity and reactions with other materials, has been carefully noted down with the aim of one day developing a book, thesis, or in-depth teaching classes.
“It’s an interesting space because we’ve got a lot of technical capacity now – when we teach workshops, we have to kind of slow ourselves down because we’ve got so much to share.”
And Wild Studio has become a key support for the duo’s work, allowing them to fund their research with workshops, classes and an online shop.
“We’ve just started selling some inks… Developing a bit of a shop that supports our research because we’re not selling artwork, we’re wanting to build [the] business by sharing our knowledge,” Emma said.
The inks Emma and Sarah sell have all been hand-made.
“From an art perspective, they’re like liquid watercolour,” Emma said.
“We’ve kind of developed our basic extraction method, but then by altering different aspects of how we use the ink, you can change the colour, so you get more than one colour from one plant. Yeah, it’s super exciting.”
Alongside their research, Emma and Sarah also run art workshops for kids and adults. As they work with participants to develop their own unique art supplies, they encourage them to view the world with “foraging eyes”.
“It feels like we’re building stronger connections by integrating plants and their uses into our art practice, as we have done into our kitchens,” Emma said.
“It’s really changed the way that I see. And I’ve noticed that with our workshop participants, how it changes the way that you then see when you’re out in the world,” Sarah said.
DETAILS: Wild studio art workshop: January 18 in Thames. See www.wildstudio.co.nz for details.
