Description

Anthracite glitters and shines like diamonds. Turn a washed piece and it is like a jewel with facets reflecting the light. Some seams are so hard that miners were equipped with special gloves to protect their hands. The samples I passed round at our first meeting are probably the oldest thing you can see or touch. The layers of greenery which became anthracite, were laid down millions of years ago.

In our discussions at the start of this project, I was reminded of my tutor at Saint Martins, Fred Gore, asking what colour would you use to paint coal if you couldn’t use black? Someone suggested red, another thought green. This remembered conversation had more meaning when I began to study pieces of anthracite which is so very black and white. A complementary pairing of red and green has the equivalent contrast.

My initial studies were of this beautiful material, which burns very hot with a clear, smokeless blue flame. I could not resolve how to combine the coal and its chemical formula without leaving a lot of white paper in the print. My focus then changed to showing symbolic figures of miners attacking a seam of anthracite between layers of rock.