Carole McCourt - Wednesday June 12
Botanical Walk and Drawing Workshop
Killhope Lead Mining Museum
Meet Museum Entrance 11am, ends 3pm
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Carole McCourt is an artist interested in ‘noticing the unnoticed’ with walking and drawing at the core of her practice.
Carole forensically researches the environs of remote areas and looks at how the physical and emotional surroundings such as geology, botany and ecology can contribute to making the stories and histories of a place accessible.
The results are often multi-media installations which can include drawing, printmaking, digital and found objects.
wild mountain pansy
Join Carole McCourt on this guided walk around the Museum site to discover some of the rare and wonderful botanicals in the area.
This unique botanical landscape is determined by the geological landscape underpinned by the Great Limestone and the minerals it contains along with the high altitude of the North Pennines. Plants here need to be hardy and have special properties to grow and survive the elements and tolerate the metal minerals in the earth, including lead.
In the surrounding landscape there are a multitude of wild flowers, grasses and lichen, including some rare lead tolerant plants called metallophytes. Spring Sandwort (leadwort), Pyrenean Scurvy Grass, Alpine Pennycress and Wild Mountain Pansies are all metallophytes and can all be found on site in abundance late June/early July.
The event will start with a short presentation in the Museum’s yurt, followed by an easy ramble around the site for about an hour and a half, before returning to the yurt for lunch and the workshop.
We encourage you to bring cameras and sound recorders to collect evidence of your findings and experiences during the walk. Culminating in a drawing workshop which will include a demonstration of the technique of metal-point. (All materials will be provided for the drawing workshop).
Please bring lunch and wear suitable attire for all weather outdoors.
