Caroline Ross

Caroline Ross an artist, writer and teacher living by the sea in Dorset, England. Her first book ‘Found and Ground’ about making natural paints is published by Search Press in June 2023. It will be published in German and Spanish in 2024.

After completing her MA in Painting from Chelsea School of Art, she left behind the urban art world and now uses what nature provides, and repurposes what humans discard. After the rooks have feasted on the riverbank, empty mussel shells become paint palettes. The moulted feathers of local swans and geese become quill pens and brushes. Chalk dug out from their setts by badgers is left in piles in the woods near Stonehenge, where she gathers it to make gouache or to draw directly onto dark papers. She makes paints from foraged earth pigments, art tools and inks from natural, wild, and found materials such as oak galls, rusty nails, elderberries, bay leaves and cherry tree gum. Combining nature study, hand crafts and traditional art techniques resulted in an evolving, ecologically sensitive art kit, which she shares with others.

Caroline Ross teaches workshops on drawing, crafts and how to make many wild-crafted art materials, with new online and in-person courses incorporating ancient methods and techniques with colleagues and collaborators. Her drawings, paintings and illustrations can be found in books, online periodicals, and private collections. She is a regular contributor and member of the Dark Mountain Project and has had many pieces published in their books since 2015. She is also a member of the Wilderness Art Collective. For more info and workshop dates see www.foundandground.com or www.instagram.com/foundandground