OF THE LAND ARTISTS

TOAST has partnered with three artists - Richard Skelton & Autumn Richardson, Adam Buick, Roanna Wells - who work with and on the land. Each artist has created an installation for a TOAST shop from Wednesday 14 October - Wednesday 4 November. Talks will be taking place alongside their installations at Westbourne Grove, Oxford & Bath. Here we introduce each artist...

RICHARD SKELTON & AUTUMN RICHARDSON / LANDSCAPE ARTISTS. IN OUR WESTBOURNE GROVE SHOP

A reconnection with landscape is at the heart of Richard Skelton and Autumn Richardson's work. In 2004 Richard's wife died and in coming to terms with this tragedy he began to walk the West Pennine Moors. Soon his walking became a ritual, a mixture of distraction and diversion, and in following the contours of the moor's hills, the eaves of its woods, he immersed himself in its phenomena, its languages and histories. He made music on the moor catching and recording its sounds. Later he would write a book on the experience titled Landings, archival-like in its intensity. Now with his partner Autumn Richardson he has founded Corbel Stone Press, to further this work. Navigating complex topographies and delving into natural histories, they continue to evoke the echoes, rhythms, and atmospheres of the land. Incorporating printed matter, sound, film, and found fragments, their work has a delicate precision, as though every word or artefact has a necessary purpose and place. It is through this methodical, studied approach that they seem to urge, gently, a renewed intimacy to the land.

A talk from TOAST Travels contributor and writer Louisa Thomsen Brits on Richard Skelton & Autumn Richardson's work will be talking place, alongside the installation on Thursday 15 October 6-8pm. If you would like to attend, register your interest here.

ADAM BUICK / CERAMICIST. IN OUR BATH SHOP

Adam Buick is a ceramicist from Pembrokeshire, Wales. He creates wood-fired ceramics based on the moon jar an ancient Korean form made from pure white porcelain, so named for its globular shape and milky glaze. These pure, simple jars have become his spherical canvas' onto which he maps his local surroundings, creating slips of locally dug clay and incorporating coarse black sand and seaweed collected from the coast behind his studio. Diverse in scale and texture each jar reacts unpredictably during firing and, with its small imperfections and inclusions, is unique. Chaste and quite still in their beauty, these pots seem alive with the land. The time-lapse film, spanning ten days, shows a raw, unrefined jar exposed to the elements at the top of Carn Treliwyd. The wind and the rain complete the natural cycle, returning earth to earth.

A talk from Adam Buick will be taking place in our Bath shop, alongside his installation on Thursday 22 October 6-8pm. If you would like to attend the talk, register your interest here.

ROANNA WELLS / ARTIST. IN OUR OXFORD SHOP

Roanna Wells is an artist, living and working in Yorkshire. Her work is underpinned by mark-making and making by hand, whether it be the line made by a pen or a paintbrush on paper, a single thread through fabric or the careful hand shaping of a wooden spoon. Each piece, in its quiet, ordered beauty, shows the hand of the artist, through the small impressions left and the sensitivity of the handling. The paints she has chosen for this project are hand made from pigment sourced locally in Oxford, including Oxford Ochre and Oxford Mudstone. The wood she has sourced for her spoons is from native trees: Boxwood, Cherry and Oak.

A talk from Roanna Wells will be taking place in our Oxford shop, alongside her installation on Thursday 29 October 6-8pm. If you would like to attend the talk, register your interest here.

Bios by Emily Mears