Dressed in Pattern, Paintings

These paintings form part of an overall body of work of entitled Dressed in Pattern made over a two year period and completed in 2016 which drew upon landscape, text & decorative motifs sourced from the Spode Museum Trust archive of engravings. The work also included the installation Spode Trees and Dressed Silhouettes, single and sequenced ceramic plates, and a series of lasercut relief prints In the shadows. Dressed in Pattern was the result of many years of involvement with ceramics at the Spode factory and an Arts Council England grant (awarded with artist Paul Scott in 2014) for research and development.

Industrial decorated ceramic ware as made at Spode has long been associated with providing pictures for homes of all classes, an inexpensive equivalent to the unique painting as seen in museums and collections. The intention in the new series of ‘paintings’ was to complete the circle and return the plates into components embedded within paintings. The graphic mark of the Spode engravings has been taken through a number of processes and changed through the printing of a selection of fragments, scanning, scaling and redrawing both hand and digitally. It is further taken into the materiality of paint, in which the printed surface of the ware is integrated into the overall surface of the painting whilst also retaining its clear reference to its previous function. Furthermore it extends the exploration of collage as a methodology and what results from collisions of style, material and surface.

http://www.jaggedart.com/exhibitions/2016/charlotte-hodes-dressed-in-pattern-at-jaggedart-and-circusSpode Trees and Dressed SilhouettesDressed in Pattern, ceramicsGraphic Work
Photo credits: Peter Abrahams