Inspired by the poem ‘A Poet Returns From Rydal Mount And Visits His Own Grandmother’s House’, Oliver James Lomax, I created this mixed media piece.

 

The poem showcases the poet's grandmother’s home, as if a museum with plaques detailing the significance of certain areas. As I read through, and heard, this poem, I found myself creating associations with quotes and my own Nanna’s house; This made it easy to form personal connections with the poem due to the significance of my Nanna’s home in my life.

 

In my family, my Nanna’s house has always served as a landmark-like place. A typical analogy I use to describe the significance of the house is that my Nanna is like the Queen and the house is Buckingham Palace. 

 

When choosing what parts of the house I would use in my piece, I focused on what held the most weight in my memories. For example, I layered examples of old wallpaper to depict the layers of wallpaper that had accumulated in my Nanna’s living room; This was something that was uncovered when redecorating. Additionally, I scratched into that wallpaper to show where the cat had picked away at the wall, that could be seen on the previous wallpaper.

 

Using a series of concertina sketchbooks, mark making, etching, painting and layering, I was able to create a maze-like piece to showcase my Nanna’s home. For a majority of my mark making I used a dark black brusho ink, white oil pastel and a calligraphy pen to scratch in details.