In the winter I saw the house at No.3 and flowed through the space with my camera looking at texture, light and places of abandonment. I was challenged to draw on the wall, scaling up ideas about drawing on photographs, to extend the image in a non-natural way. This is partly about feelings for a bygone time and partly about our present transforming environment, the world crumbling before us. The space here is on the edge, head north and you could walk all day on the moors without crossing a road. And tread lightly on the earth.

The Firmament, in the upper room

In the kitchen in a cottage on the edge of the moors, Maida is drying flowers, maybe for winter tea, maybe for potpourri, or even a remedy. The couch is in the kitchen, ready for everything to happen. The camp stove can be packed up at a moment’s notice, in case of picnics. I could also call it Piercing the Firmament, after a picture found on an internet colouring project.

The pink bathroom:

Wedding pants from two Grandmothers. Wedding Pants framed

In the front room on the table are 3 hand bound books: Mother, Memory, Die Erde; The Firmament

No. 3 is part of VARC Exhibition Weekend; a collaboration between VARC and Highgreen Arts and part of Great Northumberland. It has received additional funding from Northumberland County Council and is part of Great Northumberland - 56 days of free arts, culture and heritage events in Northumberland. For more information please visit www.greatnorthumberland.co.uk or varc.org.uk/news/varc-exhibition-weekend.

Inside the house at No.3, Highgreen, Tarset, there is work by Karen Melvin, Claudia Sacher and Grace Warde-Aldam. June 30 - July 1 2018

Watch No.3 video

All images copyright Karen Melvin 2020