The British artist explores the relationship between nature and people, examining how they form an "emotional ecosystem" for those who live around them.

That isn’t unusual for someone who draws and paints every day — but this latest dirt is real, dug from the ground in Yorkshire and Warwickshire, England, and used as the medium for her drawings of trees and landscapes.

“I didn’t even know soil could stick or spread — but I love it. You make these drawings with the breath. You rub in the soil, blow the paper and then the glory reveals itself,” says the artist, who’s been keeping small buckets of dirt around her basement studio, which is a short walk from Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament in London.

“It’s physical work, because you’re clambering over the drawing [on the floor] and it’s weirdly organic. I don’t know quite what I’m doing, although I’m having a fun time,” adds Cadogan, who’s dressed in work gear — jeans and Birkenstock Bostons — with her buttery blond hair tied in a messy bun.

Cadogan comes from a family that knows dirt can be full of treasure. Nancy’s British father, Gerald Cadogan, is an academic and archaeologist, and much of her childhood was spent on excavation sites in Cyprus and Crete. Her American mother, the writer Lucy Cadogan, wrote a novel in the ’80s called “Digging,” a thriller set in Crete.

In addition to those buckets of dirt, there are palettes of paint, pieces of charcoal and stacks of books scattered all around the studio, along with paintings on easels and drawings assembled on the floor, ready for delivery to various galleries and shows.

Source link