Artist collaboration
As part of our initiatives to get involved with the local community and causes close to our heart, we are pleased to announce our not-for-profit collaboration with vegan and environmentally-conscious local artist Mark Butler
A curated selection of Mark’s artwork is currently adorning the walls at Beck Hall Malham, and the best part is, they’re available for guests to purchase.
“After stumbling across Mark’s artwork, we were keen to share his work with our guests who we’re sure will admire these stunning pieces and appreciate the ethos behind them,” said Louise Macbeth, owner, Beck Hall.
About the artist
Mark works out of his studio in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales village of Grassington.
A full list of the artworks available to purchase at Beck Hall can be found below.
“I am an artist working in metal (primarily cast bronze) and mixed media. Inspired by my local landscape, maps and the environment as well as microscopy. All work is cast by myself and I often harness chance by using thin wax originals, or wood which is not fully burnt out. This creates imperfect and fractured pieces that make a solid permanent material seem fragile and in the process of disintegrating. I use this in my work to mirror the impermanence and vulnerability of the environment around me.” Mark Butler
If you’d like to take home one of these pieces, please speak to a member of our team or drop us a message to our Beck Hall WhatsApp.
Artwork information
Room 1
‘Trackways’ (ETHW02) Bronze and Steel £345
The inspiration for this piece comes from one of the suggested phrases provided for the piece produced on Day 68 of my 100 Day Project (see my website for details). The phrase was ‘Ancient trackways through the marshes, providing safe passage’ (by @emmelinebutlerceramics). Despite not picking these words for the 100 Day Project piece, they stuck with me and I then produced this piece, imagining the trackways now disintegrating into the marsh they cross.
The bronze piece was created initially in oil based clay and welding rods which was then moulded in silicon rubber. Wax was then poured into the mould but was deliberately made thin. This was coated in a ceramic shell and fired to melt out the wax and harden then the shell. When the bronze was poured in, it was cooled slightly first. The combination of the thin piece and cooled metal means that the piece only partially fills, giving a partial reproduction that has an organic feel to it. It also results in each piece being unique. It sits on a steel sheet that has been rusted and then sealed.
Suitable for indoors and can be hung in full sun.
’Barden Bridge’ (AMBB1) Rust print, ink, gunpowder, burning, gold leaf £450
The drawings start with a rust print. A map of the area is reversed and traced onto a painted steel sheet. This is then scratched through the paint to the steel surface below. A rusting solution is then sprayed on the metal and the paper also soaked in it. The paper is laid on top of the steel, covered in plastic sheeting and weighed down, then left for several days for the steel to rust and the rust to soak into the paper. The paper is then washed well to remove the rusting solution.
Ink details are added to the map using drawing pens to highlight roads, footpaths and rivers.
The area is surveyed to identify the location of all the ash trees and these are all marked on the map.
Piles of gunpowder are placed on these locations and ignited, giving a random spattering of burn marks around them which could be thought of as the ash dieback spores being released into the air.
Most of the tree locations are then burned out of the map using a pyrography tool, with 5-10% (the estimated number of trees which will hopefully survive due to genetic diversity) just scorched and then gold leaf added to these locations afterwards.
Room Wharfe
‘Trackways’ (ETHW05) Bronze and Corton Steel £995
The inspiration for this piece comes from one of the suggested phrases provided for the piece produced on Day 68 of my 100 Day Project (see my website for details). The phrase was ‘Ancient trackways through the marshes, providing safe passage’ (by @emmelinebutlerceramics). Despite not picking these words for the 100 Day Project piece, they stuck with me and I then produced this piece, imagining the trackways now disintegrating into the marsh they cross.
The bronze pieces were created initially in oil based clay and welding rods which was then moulded in silicon rubber. Wax was then poured into the mould but was deliberately made thin. These was coated in a ceramic shell and fired to melt out the wax and harden then the shell. When the bronze was poured in, it was cooled slightly first. The combination of the thin pieces and cooled metal means that the pieces only partially fill, giving partial reproductions that have an organic feel to them. It also results in each piece being unique.
They sit on a Corten steel (a steel which forms a stable external layer of rust which then protects it from further corrosion) sheet that has been rusted. This is unsealed so if it is touched, rust will come off on your hands. Initially it may also drop small amounts of rust until the surface stabilises.
Suitable for indoor or outdoors and can be hung in full sun. If placed outside, the patination (colouring) will change over time and the areas which have been polished back to the metal surface will also take on this colouring.
’Untited’ (DEH04) Rust Print, ink, watercolour £495
This piece is inspired by Ernst Haeckel’s drawing of a Aulacantha scolymantha, a radiolarian. Radiolarians are single-celled aquatic animals that have a spherical amoeba-like body with a spiny skeleton of silica.
The drawing starts with a rust print. The design is drawn onto a painted steel sheet and then scratched through the paint to the steel surface below. A rusting solution is then sprayed on the metal and the paper also soaked in it. The paper is laid on top of the steel, covered in plastic sheeting and weighed down, then left for several days for the steel to rust and the rust to soak into the paper. The paper is then washed well to remove the rusting solution.
Ink and watercolour was then added to complete the piece.
Room 14
‘Moorland Burning’ (MBMM04) Bronze in wood panel with mixed media painting £395
This piece is made about the practice of burning heather moorland by grouse moor owners and the damage this does to the underlying peat and surrounding environment.
The bronze piece is made with partially burnt out plywood and sit in a black painted recess surrounded by charcoal marks. The acrylic painted wooden panel has a map in the background and text taken from the EMBER (Effect of Moorland Burning on the Ecohydrology of River basins) report by Leeds University.
’Landscape Profile’ (ALBL03) Bronze and acrylic painting on wood panel £245
Walking is a constant source of inspiration for me, seeking out and discovering the hidden and unexpected. This happens through noticing interesting looking routes whilst walking, or by studying new and old maps of an area. This piece shows the height profile of a walk in Malham, one that can be imagined as your eyes travel along it. Cast in bronze, it sits on a historic map of the area which was transferred onto the wooden panel before adding layers of acrylic paint.
Room Aire
’Landscape Profile’ (LPCT01) Bronze and Cortes steel £1,595
Walking is a constant source of inspiration for me, seeking out and discovering the hidden and unexpected. This happens through noticing interesting looking routes whilst walking, or by studying new and old maps of an area. This piece shows the height profile of a walk, one that can be imagined as your eyes travel along it.
The line is made from cast bronze welded together and it sits on a Corten steel (a steel which forms a stable external layer of rust which then protects it from further corrosion) sheet that has been rusted. This is unsealed so if it is touched, rust will come off on your hands. Initially it may also drop small amounts of rust until the surface stabilises.
Suitable for indoor or outdoors and can be hung in full sun. If placed outside, the patination (colouring) will change over time and the areas which have been polished back to the metal surface will also take on this colouring.
Room 6
’Captured Passion’ Bronze on wood £395
This piece was part of a series based on pollen grains. The sphere is based on a microscopic image of a passion flower pollen grain.
The pollen grain and grid are made from cast bronze and sit on a varnised wooden back.
Suitable for indoors and can be hung in full sun.
’Walking Treasures (DWT04) Ink, Wash, burning, gunpowder on paper £295
This drawing is my explorations of what is at my feet whilst exploring the local landscape. In discovering and stopping to examine and record these ‘treasures’ along my routes, I am recording my experience of these places. The more I stopped to notice things, the more I spotted.
Sections of the journey between these places are also recorded in these drawings, bringing some context to the ‘treasures’ and showing how to walk through an area is to both understand the sense of place that location holds and also how you fit within that place. These walked lines are burnt into the paper and have the ‘treasure’ locations marked on them using gunpowder.
Top of stairs, main building
’Pebbles’ (PB01) Steel & Bronze £280
Inspired by the circular holes worn out of rocks on the seashore or riverbed. The ‘pebbles’ are made from cast bronze. They sit on a black painted steel sheet, with a raised rusted steel sheet around them which has been sealed and varnished to prevent further rusting.
Suitable for indoors and can be hung in full sun.