Finding my context & research
My Sense of Place?
Week One (10/02/2025): Why develop an FMP title & premise
Inspiration for my FMP
I found this video from Croydon rap artist Still Shady by chance but proved inspirational to me and my ideas about a title and premise for my Final Major Project (FMP) this year. This is in part because part of his own sense of place is Box Hill that lies adjacent to my local parish of Brockham. I love his lyrics and sentiment he expresses about the healing power of nature and his discovery of a connection with Surrey Hills AONB and wildlife. It also resonated with me because I've always worked outdoors and for much of my career on farms, in small woods and on commons, which in hindsight helped me cope with my neurodiversity and mental wellbeing.
Wednesday 12/02/2025
Brainstorming my FMP Premise
So Pages 1-6 in my FMP workbook show my ideas with regard to why I'm thinking about delivering an FMP about nature and art based on my personal lived experience as an ranger, biologist and outsider artist. During Stage 3 of the FAD I want to consolidate my creative practice so that I can help people engage with nature and also develop a sense of place for their local community. I want to create either a large mural or a body of work that depicts my local parish and its landscape features; maybe the mural could be a background for me to display prints and mixed-media images of key wildlife and places of cultural interest to me and my community. I have produced draft project proposals based on my current thinking about a title and premise.
Sunday 16/02/2025
Concept for my FMP
At the moment I am showing my understanding and application of knowledge about My FMP topic and subject matter. I am exploring the underlying basis of my narrative i.e. my personal lived experience as a countryside ranger and biologist has shown me that people do not readily engage with nature or embrace wildlife. I want to open people's eyes and ears to the natural and cultural heritage of their local landscapes.
I am showing that my prior learning and work experience provided me with appropriate breadth and depth to support the development and realisation of my concept. I want to consolidate my creative practice so that I can help people engage with nature and develop a sense of place for their local environment. Pages 7-12 of my workbook explain what I want to deliver for my FMP.
I shared with the FAD Course tutor my proposal and ideas for how I might move my FMP forward (see above a screenshot of MS Teams chat) and got the thumbs up to proceed. I'm going to start by using local soil types, geology and chalk fossils as a source of inspiration for experimenting with some ideas about how I could use various printmaking methods to deliver my FMP premise.
I am considering whether to create a large mural, or a body of work, that depicts my parish and its key physical, biological, cultural and social features. I want to produce a body of fine art prints of wildlife, plants and places of local historic interest. It is an opportunity to explore ideas for print-making and perhaps other methods such as mixed-media, video, 3D practice and poetry.
Monday 17/02/2025
My FMP proposals
I've created a 4th draft of my FMP Project Proposal Form to share with peers & my course tutor for feedback.
Saturday 22/02/2025
Week Two (24/02/2025): What is context of my FMP?
Final Major Project Title:
How can I use my creative practice to help people engage with nature and communities develop a 'sense of place' for their local landscape?
Saturday 22/02/2025
Placing my FMP in context
During the third week of my FMP I will show my understanding and application of knowledge about methods I want to use and share my research into the various artists that use those methods. I will explore how those methods will deliver my narrative and how I might engage with people do not readily embrace nature and wildlife through my creative practice.
I am researching artists who focus on print-making and mixed-media, as well as trying out a variety of print making methods and compositions to help deliver my concept. I will consider how primary and secondary visual, academic, ethical and cultural sources inform my decision-making and affect planning, production and presentation of my FMP. Stage 3 is an opportunity to try methods suitable for local community art projects in the future. Pages 13-18 of my workbook explain how I could deliver a body of work for my FMP.
Brockham is a rural parish in the Mole Valley District of Surrey. It nestles below a scarp slope of the North Downs with Box Hill clearly visible from the village green. The name Brockham derives from 'brook-ham' or Anglo-Saxon for 'bend in the river' or 'river meadow by the brook', which are both applicable terms even in a modern context. It is located on a noticable bend in the River Mole as it flows west towards Dorking.
Brockham has a rich natural and cultural heritage, which includes the use of chalk (lime) and clay (bricks) for industrial purposes. I can experiment with natural paints made using the various local soils e.g. chalk, clay, sand and silt to create conceptual works about my parish. There are interesting people, wildlife, places and buildings that offer opportunities to experiment with a range of print-making methods.
Sunday 23/02/2025
My FMP Plan
Yesterday I got the written and verbal feedback about FAD Stage 2 during a one2one with my course tutor, which included guidance for Stage 3: Consolidating Creative Practice. We discussed my preparation and ideas for a Final Major Project proposal. I've now reflected on this feedback and advice, as well as the points raised and discussed during the meeting, and recorded my ideas and thoughts in my FMP worksbook.
I modified my proposals to reflect his feedback and to created a narrative around 'sense of place' so that communities and people engage with their local landscape. Following my tutor's advise I've also endeavoured to identify my audience more specifically and thought more about what other methods, as well as print-making, I may use to deliver a body of work for the FMP.
Tuesday 25/02/2025
Gallery Visit (28/02/2025): Where is my own 'sense of place' ?
Field trip to Surrey Hills
This video by Croydon rap artist Still Shady has been a key driver in my choice of a narrative about my FMP title and premise, which is going to focus on a 'Sense of Place'. The main driver for me was that his sense of place is in the Surrey Hills AONB, which lies close to where I live; and I love the sentiments he shares about nature, his own connection with Surrey Hills and its wildlife. His lyrics resonated because I've always been fascinated about the montage of physical, biological and cultural heritage of the landscape around where I live. As part of this first week of my project planning I've decided that I will visit 'nature's gallery' at either Box Hill or Nower Wood on Friday, which are both located within Surrey Hills AONB near to my home. I do not have enough emotional and mental energy to travel to a gallery in London this week, but whilst being outdoors on a nature trail will be so therapeutic for me, it will also be highly relevant to the narrative of my FMP Proposal.
Wednesday 26/02/2025
I've created a 5th draft of my FMP Project Proposal Form to forward to my course tutor and submit to UAL Unit 4.
Thursday 27/02/2025
My Nature Journal
So as it transpired I visited Nower Wood SNCI, a private wood used as an educational nature reserve by Surrey Wildlife Trust and situated near Headley in Surrey Hills AONB. It was a beautiful morning with a decent frost on the last day of meteorological winter, clear sky and crisp sun that provided for good photgraphic conditions. I focused on three topics for my visit to Nature's Gallery... images that reflected a lightshow, sculptural forms and colour & textures simulating natural textile surfaces. Above are a sample of 9 favourite images from today. I also collected some physical samples that I will use to create a single A3 landscape Nature Journal page of the visit. I saw 6 deer, a sparrowhawk, 2 woodpecker, a treecreeper, a nuthatch, a variety of woodland tits, crows & rooks, as well as unexpectedly 2 smooth newts. The Education Centre Manager has asked if I will return and make Nower Wood my 'sense of place' venue for my FMP work.
Friday 28/02/2025
So after today's exciting offer from SWT to make Nower Wood my site for the FMP Sense of Place project I spoke to my art mentor Tiffany Gregory & my course tutor. Both agreed that it was an appropriate development of my FMP plan and both liked the idea of a weekly journal visit to seek inspiration from nature for my FMP.
Friday 28/02/2025
FMP Contextual Essay 2025
So this is my second essay written for the FAD course and this is for Unit 4 UAL Consolidating Creative Practice in Stage 3 of FAD. I chose to explore a particular theoretical aspect of my FMP so that I could test my title and premise to verify that art and nature compliment each other.
In particular I wanted to test my hypothesis that it is valid for me to consider using my own creative practice to help people connect with the natural world and develop a 'sense of place' for their unique local landscapes.
My essay demonstrates that my hypothesis is valid and that the premise of my FMP is sound.
28 March 2025