Kate Boyce Art

Excavations   When I began Beyond Sight , I was interested in how artists communicate experiences that cannot be directly seen. I was thinking about things such as memory, spirituality, atmosphere and emotion, and wondering how these invisible aspects of experience might be translated into a tangible form. Looking back now, I think the project ended up becoming less about the unseen itself and more about the relationship between memory, place and impermanence.   A lot of the project developed through exploration. Although I began with a proposal and a number of artists and ideas that I wanted to investigate, I often found that the making process revealed things that I wasn't consciously aware of when I started. Many of the most important discoveries emerged through experimentation, site visits and reflection.   One of the first strands of the project involved investigating memory through landscape. I became increasingly aware of how strongly I associate memories with part...

  This is a bibliography for the Specialist Studio Practice module: References Ross, C. (2023) Found and Ground: A Practical Guide to Making Your Own Foraged Paints . Tunbridge Wells: Search Press. https://olafureliasson.net/     Eliasson, O. (no date) Olafur Eliasson . Available at: https://olafureliasson.net/ (Accessed: 11 January 2026). Frieze – Celeste Boursier-Mougenot article Frieze (no date) Celeste Boursier-Mougenot . Available at: https://www.frieze.com/article/celeste-boursier-mougenot (Accessed: 3 May 2026). Drain Magazine article Drain Magazine (no date) The ethics of instrumentalization: Celeste Boursier-Mougenot’s From Here to Ear at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art . Available at: https://drainmag.com/the-ethics-of-instrumentalization-celeste-boursier-mougenots-from-here-to-ear-at-the-montreal-museum-of-fine-art/ (Accessed: 17 December 2025). Lindy Lee – Works Lee, L. (no date) Works . Available at: https://www.lindylee.net/works/ (Accessed:...

  I have been searching for a material that I can include in my cave paintings that would allude to layers, or 'excavating down' into the painting. I tried using plaster but found it difficult to use because of its fast drying time, and it was difficult to get the consistency correct. It crumbled as I worked, and it was inconvenient to use because of the dust that is created.  Inspired by the thick wax paintings of Anselm Kiefer, I settled on using a wax paste, which was a mixture of wax and oil paint. I used the below recipe to create the paste, however, it was prone to cracking after it had cooled, so I added a step of mashing it using a pestle and mortar which made it into a nice smooth consistency before I added the oil paint just before using it. Wax Paste Recipe: 1 part beeswax, 1 part turpentine. Over an electric hotplate, warm the ingredients together until the beeswax has melted into the solution. Remove from the heat and stir occasionally until the solution cools to ...

  In continuing my search for reference material, I went on the cave tour at Nottingham Castle, which consists of an underground passage leading from the castle to the street below. It was interesting to learn that all of the caves within Nottingham are man-made. I didn't consider this before, but it is due to the local sandstone, which is easy enough to carve into, but holds its shape enough to be able to form safe passageways. These particular tunnels were made to be able to transport goods from what would have been the canal below, and there are hand carved steps and niches where they would have placed lanterns and stored projectiles to defend the castle.  I was inspired by the way in which the sandstone had worn with age, and of how it had weathered and discoloured from the effects of acid rain. There were also different coloured layers in the rock that were interesting. When I get time, I will see if I can collect some of the dust from the base of the Castle Rock and crea...

Since this is a group exhibition, we needed to come up with a system for planning and curating the space. We carried out a site visit to measure the space, and the owners kindly provided us with a layout diagram of the two stories of the building as well. We dedicated a space in the studio to put up pictures of our proposed work and suggest where they could be situated in the gallery. We could then discuss it as a group and decide where our work would best fit.  I felt that the upstairs space would be most suitable for my large cave paintings since there was a larger amount of open wall space available. I also liked the idea of my work being in a quieter area, since it is intended to be viewed in a more quiet and contemplative atmosphere than some of the other work that will be exhibited. The other advantage of the upstairs gallery space is that there is a glass ceiling and ample lighting along the wall space. This will allow my works to be suitably lit without the need for additio...

  I first planned the painting out on the small sketch above it The cave painting consists of ink, paint, sculptors wax, wax paint, charcoal and pastel. I am very much enjoying swapping between the different media as I work, feeling into it and letting the painting inform which material it needs at each stage. I am wondering whether the painting is verging upon illustration more than I intended, however I would like viewers to understand it as a kind of narrative, viewing this figure at a pivotal moment in a journey, perhaps relating to that and taking their own meaning from the work. The piece is intended to show a sort of inner light within a dark place, and so I am keeping that focus in mind as I work, trying to ensure that its soft glow is central to the painting.

Another co-created painting made with Kaj. We chose a spot at Wollaton Hall and worked together to paint on the same canvas. I find these exercises valuable because they encourage me to think about forms, movements and colour as extensions of my own emotions, rather than simply painting the view I see in front of me. I am also becoming more comfortable working intuitively. I particularly enjoy the collaborative aspect of the process- allowing another person to respond directly to my marks requires trust and a willingness to relinquish control, but I find that the work often becomes stronger because of it, and it's always interesting to see the resulting fusion of our mark-making.

 After bisque firing, my ceramics were emerging from the kiln as a light grey colour and I had wanted them to be more of a deep black. I didn't want to re-make the vessels, so after researching it I settled on using manganese carbonate, which is a staining agent that can be painted over the coloured slip. I coated them with two even layers of the manganese carbonate before their second firing, and I was pleased with the earthy black tone they emerged in. For the subsequent batches of vessels, I made sure to use the same process of applying the slip, and then the manganese carbonate before second firing, to ensure they were all of a consistent colour. the manganese carbonate is a thin fluid that can be painted onto the ceramic in layers and dries very quickly their colour after bisque firing (only coated with coloured slip)     their colour after second firing, coated with manganese carbonate  

  I started a mixed media painting using the wax paint formula the Denise showed us. The painting is informed by the use of light and dark as metaphor that I learnt from my reading about Odillon Redon's work, as well as a quotation from Kandinsky's 'Concerning the Spriritual in Art' that stuck with me:  'The soul does not as yet courageously admit it's fear, that the light might be a dream, and the encircling darkness, reality'. The painting is my imagining of this 'dream light', and how it might feel to find it within the darkness of a cave. If we think of the cave as a metaphor for the psychological landscape, it challenges the idea that light is only found outside of the confines of a cave, outside of ourselves. This painting is about venturing into ourselves and discovering our inner light.  

       

  Throwing the vessels has been a hit-and-miss process. There have been some days where I spent hours at the pottery wheel struggling to center the clay, with pot after pot collapsing and ending up on my reject pile. Other days have felt effortless, my muscle memory kicking in and pots created seamlessly and consistently. I have tried to make the most of each session- when pots collapse, I have halved them to learn what I can from their profiles. For example, in the photo above, the upper pot was too thick at the base, and I had not lifted enough clay to the top half, resulting in the upper walls being too thin. With the lower pot, the base was too thin, and I had over-dampened the clay so the vessel had difficulty holding its shape.  With my level of experience, it was difficult to achieve the balance needed to create the forms that I wanted, but I was able to create 11 vessels, which was about the number that I was aiming for. In terms of memories for the pots, I found it di...

Olafur Eliasson is a Danish-Icelandic artist who resides in Berlin. His work is largely research-led, and focuses on sustainability and climate action. I am inspired by the inclusion of natural phenomena in his work, which allows us to see beauty in occurrences that are completely ordinary to us, such as light shining through mist, or the familiar trajectory of the sun. He achieves this by reducing them down to their most simple components. Your Circadian Embrace  features a simple beam of sunlight that, when shone through a prismatic ring suspended from the ceiling creates circles and arcs of colourful light on the surrounding walls. By isolating these phenomena, we are given a new, outside perspective on them which allows us to contemplate their complexity and scale, giving us a sense of our own position within the universe. In his own words: “To track the sun is to track yourself, because the sun tracker locates the centre of your orbital ellipse, giving your position right now ...

 

The idea of the memory vessels is a form of archiving of intangible experiences, and so I carried out research in order to figure out what form that could take. I researched vessels that were made to age their contents, as well as vessels that were made to contain intangible forms, such as souls. I had in mind something like canopic jars, so I also visited the ancient Egyptian section at Leicester Museum to view the ceramics that were on display. I did see some canopic jars, however I was inspired by the very simple forms and earthy aesthetic of some of the other ancient Egyptian vessels designed for storage of goods, and I felt that something ancient-looking would be fitting for an object that might be conceivably found in a cave. I already had in mind that I wanted the vessels to be sealed, in effort to keep the memories inside of them, and I wanted to hang at least some of them in order to emphasise the fragility of memory. I saw a hanging pot at Leicester Museum and I enjoyed it...

Here are some of the photos I took during our research trip to Calke Abbey. The history of the building itself was interesting, but most of all I enjoyed the dark, decayed and strange places that can be found within the building and grounds, many of which were underground, including servant's passageways and storage cellars. I was inspired by the interplay of light and dark in these spaces- an important aspect that I want to bring into my work.