Painting with Nature

(Written February 2021)

In stark contrast to the rainbow of vivid colours that the many of the artists that I write about favour, Tim Sexton's nature studies are entirely monochromatic. Painted with just the right amount of brushstrokes, the fragile forms of the fungi he is recreating give the impression they could be picked right off the page. What is particularly interesting about Tim’s paintings though, is the way they are produced.

You might know Tim better through his dedicated years at Attenborough Nature Reserve, where he was one of the managers of the visitor’s centre for almost 15 of them.. Having been first furloughed, then made redundant due to the pandemic, Tim made the most of the good weather during the first lockdown.?A keen and skilfull photographer, Tim had perfected his skills in macro photography in his spare time whilst working for the Wildlife Trust and has become well known for the images often used in publicity materials for Attenborough Nature Reserve.

Tim describes macro photography as ‘a useful tool for recording and identifying wildlife’ and loves to photograph species that may otherwise be overlooked - in particular invertebrates which he has discovered and which make up more than 90% of all living animal species. There are around thirty stunning captures on his website, possibly more since time of writing. His passion for photography blossoming due to an inspiring undergraduate course in Graphic Design Tim undertook on leaving school. But as an early creative Tim had always painted in his spare time and enjoyed ‘the way you can lose yourself in the picture’ as it takes shape. Shelved in favour of photography for a number of years, he returned to painting as a medium for recording his wildlife observations during ‘lockdown.’

Having possessed an interest in the natural world for as long as he can remember Tim has been an enthusiastic forager for years, making use of the bounty in his natural surroundings. It was this, and an article that he read about a man who had starting painting with the ink from a certain type of wild mushroom, that led Tim to experiment with a different medium for his art. Shaggy inkcaps are abundant in autumn and harvesting enough to provide a sufficient amount of ink was easy enough. Sealed in a Ziplock bag, the ink had already started to bleed out by the time he arrived home – the mushrooms decay rapidly one they are picked.

Tim’s son accompanies him on his nature walks and it was him that suggested he paint mushrooms with the stored ink, this seemed satisfyingly poetic. Tim used photographs that he had taken of the inkcaps as a source for his paintings adding tea tree oil to the jar of ink to make the odour that bit more palatable. The ink itself is quite watery so it takes many careful layers to build up the lines on the page, though it dries quickly so this is not as painstaking as it sounds.

The resulting images bear a striking similarity to the anatomical and botanical illustrations of the Victorian age which I have always found fascinating. I always imagined that creating those illustrations in ink was incredibly time-consuming and required a very steady hand. I love that Tim’s work forges links with traditional dyeing methods where wool and cloth would be tinted with a variety of plants, invertebrates or minerals long before the manufacture of synthetic dyes. There is something honest and pure about these paintings, something that keeps them firmly connected with the natural environment they originated from. And curiously, as there are spores contained in the ink, should the paintings be exposed to a dark, damp atmosphere there is a possibility that the fungus will emerge from the paper - which is exciting if a bit creepy!

At time of writing Tim is now three weeks into his new job as species and recording officer at Rutland Water. The large deer population have been relishing the lack of people at the reserve and are getting much more relaxed, he expresses how peaceful this is ‘just me and the wildlife.’ And with painting as his escape, I’d say Tim is navigating this pandemic pretty well by all accounts.

www.sextonbeetle.com

DU