Mary Blackshaw is a local artist who works with a variety of media to create imaginative illustrations.
During artweeks Mary will also be showing how to make paint from pigments and selling some of her lake and earth kits for you to make drawing charcoal, pastel, watercolour, or pigment sticks at home.
Mary creates her own paints using both earth and lake pigments she finds both in Oxfordshire and further afield. Mary says
‘my father was a Greek Orthodox iconographer and so I learnt all about preparing and making paints from a young age and would often act as his apprentice, grinding pigments and forming individual paints.’
Mary’s work focuses on folklore and fairytales of the British isles. Inspired by Edward Gorey and Brian Wildsmith, Mary works with handmade watercolours, ink, and collage to achieve her desired effect.