Studio Still Life Photograph by Lucy Mayes
Workshop

Sketching with Soil with Lucy Mayes

Sat 22 Mar 2025
14.00 - 16.00
£15.00/£11.25 concessions
Embankment Galleries
Hope Lab

Join artist and pigment maker Lucy Mayes for an immersive workshop exploring the connection between soil ecology and art. Learn how to craft handmade drawing materials, including soft pastels, using earth pigments and sustainable binders.  

Lucy will guide you through the fascinating process of transforming raw earth samples into high-quality iron oxide pigments. This includes techniques such as crushing, washing, and levigating to refine and create a palette of vibrant, natural colors while removing impurities. 

In this session, you'll gain hands-on experience in making pastels and leave with your own set of earth-derived drawing tools, deepening your appreciation for the artistic and ecological potential of soil.  

About Lucy Mayes

Lucy Mayes (b. 1991) is an artist and pigment maker working in London and Hampshire. Her work as ‘London Pigment’ uses urban waste stream materials to make recycled pigment. Her practice is centred on the use of unusual, surprising or esoteric raw materials to make colour as a way of documenting events or ‘happenings’. Verdigris made from copper wire stripped from burnt-out mopeds, soot and ash from park fires and construction rubble have all been used in her work to make pigments. Her colour-making practice centres on creating sustainable pigments from anthropocene waste streams. She works in the capacity of pigment/colour consultant and has worked with Neptune Interiors Ltd, Royal Cornwall Museum, V&A, Kew Gardens on pigment projects. She previously worked as product developer and pigment specialist at renowned colourman L.Cornelissen & Son where she developed their historical pigment archive. She teaches pigment making at institutions nationally and hopes to re-orientate our connections to colour; through the creation of intimate relationships with matter formed through embodied making. 

The public programme is presented with support from Gaia Art Foundation and the World Living Soils Forum by Moët Hennessy