Terry Donaldson

Through my work I endeavour to depict the beauty and fragility of the natural environment, looking for ways to help people notice how special the landscape is and begin to connect more deeply with it. Working with coastal landscapes, my focus is on the apparent tension between the needs of people and natural processes.

 

My practice involves the collection, hand processing and use of local earth pigments to colour cloth. Precious and valuable materials, despite their humble origins, they link directly to place, representing a surprisingly beautiful outcome given some of the bleaker starting points. 

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Textures and marks observed in the landscape inform print and stitch. The use of hand-made nets is often intrinsic to the work, speaking to the contradiction between our need to control our coastal environment and our essential interconnectedness with the natural world, linking back to the traditional skills and industries of the coast.