Blue Palms
Colour Foraging with artist Rati Devi Sivyer
Roaming the Heath has become a much appreciated and, frankly, obsessive habit of mine lately. When I first moved to the area in the winter, it was all frozen and desolate. I had attempted to engage with the landscape by running, and genuinely believe I got high from all the leaping over logs & sprinting round windy possible paths. It certainly set me in a good mood to start work, even if I did turn up covered in mud and distinctly unsure whether I was too hot or too cold.
Actually, somebody came into the shop - they were visiting from the States and had heard about the Heath. I believe their name was Emily1, and for the purposes of this anecdote, let’s call them Emily. Emily was really quite excited about some of the trousers and things we were selling in the shop, so much so it was decided that an interim was needed while they went wondering with their Ma on the Heath. A breath of brisk air, & a slap round the face from the January winds is often a good awakener for the senses. As Emily was leaving, I blurted out - Ah! Bring me a stick! - as though I neither had access to the heath, nor any awareness of social norms or the fact this might be a more appropriate request from a dog.
… but you know, sometimes in life, putting our true self out their means we are more likely to meet like minded nuts. A few hours later, it had grown dark outside and I was trying to maintain any sense of motivation through the January murks. The doorbell to the shop went and my colleague called to me that a friend had popped by. I must confess, as a relative newby to the area, with friends scattered across other parts of the city/country/continent, I wondered who the hell would bother showing up near-closing time on a cold night like this. Turns out, time elapsed, memory warped and, like a goldfish might do another turn of the bowl and be once more excited by the prospect of a new friend, there was Emily & Emily’s Ma. What’s more, there was a mysteriously wrapped present waiting for me to open. The date of the newspaper was 12th February 2005. I would have been nine. Inside the newspaper, which had been recently procured from Flask Walk to wrap a set of silver spoons, was none other than… a stick! A perfect, slightly damp, Hampstead Heath stick. Selected and picked especially for the thrill it would bring. Thank you Emily.
…This has all been a bit of a detour to build to what I was actually intending to write about. Which is still relevant to happenchance, found friends and the heath. More specifically, it’s to share with you some notes about the workshop I ran with Rati Devi Sivyer last week.
For context, Rati and I met via the shop I work at in Hampstead. She let me take some pictures of her for Toast (the shop, not the food). We instantly recognised a kinship in each other and have spent some wonderful wanders wittering on about pigments, potatoes, podcasts, priorities, places, periods, presence, pottery… we felt propelled to start working together.
Rati’s work speaks for itself. There is a real sense of calm, of observation and of tenderness that seems to pour into each piece…it holds the capacity to slow you down from the frantic pace of everything else. Learning more about Rati’s process and its connection with nature - from sourcing pigments to acquiring felt knowledge and understanding the materiality of the work - it makes sense that such depth can be felt in each artwork she makes. The slowing down sensation is possibly a calibration with nature.
The best thing about Rati though, is that there are no fluffy art words or analysis going on about what she’s making. There is intelligence, and she is unpretentious and raw.
Inspired by a wintery walk when we came across a huge hole of undug earth, Rati leapt about and began to explain to me how this is in fact copper - and it can be collected and processed to make pigments for paint. Fast forward a few months, and we took a small group of artists & adventurers for a wander across the heath to show them how look for such coloured earth. This buzz of colour foraging is really quite exciting when you have a wee bit of knowledge of how and where to look2.
Rati then prepared a demonstration on how to separate the earth to extract the pigments, before sharing how to mix these with various natural oils/binders to create paint that you can actually use.
I shan’t spill all the beans on the how-tos and what-ifs here, as I might butcher the lingo and the indeed the serenity of the process. If you would like to join us in person, though, we are running a few more dates for this workshop across the summer. Tickets are available via eventbrite - you can follow us and we’ll send updates for new events.
For now, I’ll leave you with a few photos from April’s colour forage and its fruits… Hope to see you at our June event.
These images are by moi, taken as part of the Colour Foraging workshop in April 2025.
but Emily, if you’re reading this and your name isn’t Emily, please let me know! I lost the piece of paper you gave me with your name.
[I once ate nettles, fresh from the earth, convinced it was ‘apple mint’…]