Su France reads the landscape, translating it into prints on paper and textile work. Furrow lines, field shapes, the repetition of marks left by nature, human intervention and the geology of place: these become the starting point for each piece.

Working on Irish Linen, France uses hand ground earth pigments: ochre, red chalk, some sources from the Oxcombe escarpment, in the Lincolnshire Wolds. Alongside these sources from nature, she uses stitched vintage thread and hand pierced silver, oxidised or touched with gold.

It’s the land itself that’s precious

“Silver and gold carry their own associations of preciousness, but the message I want to send through the work runs the other way. It’s the land itself that is precious. That idea owes a debt to Six Inches of Soil, the thin easily lost layer that everything depends on, and it shapes how I use pigment, thread, paper ink and metal alike, not as ornament, but as material drawn from and pointing back to the ground.” – Su France

The result is a material honesty that resists over finishing: an aesthetic close to Wabi Sabi and Kintsugi. Where imperfection is kept, not corrected, part of a broader commitment to slow process and ecological integrity.

From surface to depth

Su France is working on several series of ongoing work, Above the Fields, Under the Canopy and The Horizon Series.These range from postcard sized pieces to large scale, site- specific commissions. They include a piece installed at the Oxcombe visitor centre featuring, three hand stitched linen panels pigmented with local, red clay.

More recent work moves from surface toward depth: pieces that echo the sediment and history beneath the landscapes the artist draws from.

“Being apart of GroundWork NetWork matters to me because it would connect my land-based approach with others thinking about materials, land and slowness in similar ways and offers the specialist knowledge, exhibitions and collaborations that work rooted so specifically in place needs to grow.” – Su France