Artist Traces Time

A LEIGH artist is having a short video shown at Southend’s Focal Point Gallery.

Richard Baxter, who practices at the Old Leigh Studios as a ceramicist, is taking part in the gallery’s ‘Relay’ series, which invites locally-based makers to share artwork, research, or work in progress in the form of a one-minute video.

Mr Baxter has produced On the Wall (2023), which details his process of taking ‘squeezes’ from stone inscriptions at St Peter-on-the-Wall at Bradwell, north Essex.

Built by Cedd in 654 it is England’s oldest church, but it uses far older materials from the Roman fort Othona that stood there for over 400 years.

The squeezes are sheets of porcelain pressed onto surfaces, peeled away to reveal exact negatives of specific details.

He explained: “The ceramic prints are then enhanced with a cobalt wash, a blue associated with porcelain.

“This is a different kind of printmaking, and goes hand in hand with making cyanotypes, which use similar blue dye tones and give a timeless feel.”

Taking squeezes of the Kent stones and red brick of the old chapel evidences the patina of time in traces from previous lives.

He adds: “The site is a place of utmost simplicity requiring a simple response.”

The film is being screened on Big Screen in Elmer Square, Southend, until February 1st.

For more information, visit: fpg.org.uk/exhibition/relay-round-1-2/

Picture: Richard Baxter making the ‘squeeze’

REPORT BY SOPHIE SLEIGH-JOHNSON

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