Pigment: A Mountain Walk in Forty Colours is an ongoing practice-led research and creative project exploring how pigment might become a way of understanding mountain, geology, walking and place. Developed in response to an invitation to contribute a chapter to a forthcoming publication on mountains and objects, the project takes pigment as both its material and conceptual focus, allowing creative practice to become the research itself.
Working across Fleetwith Pike and Honister Slate Quarry in the Lake District, Louise has gathered earth, slate dust and stone from around the mountain, processing these materials into a palette of forty pigments. The project began with Honister Green Slate, a natural earth pigment produced by the artist colourmakers Wallace Seymour from Westmorland Green Slate quarried at Honister. Their commitment to making artists' materials from the geology of place became the catalyst for a wider enquiry into gathering, making and working with pigments created directly from materials collected on the mountain itself.
Pigment-making sits alongside walking, drawing, printmaking and writing as ways of investigating the geology, histories and material qualities of the mountain. The project continues to evolve through repeated returns to the landscape, where collecting, making and walking generate new questions, experiments and creative responses. Still very much a work in progress, it remains open to future discoveries and directions.
ParaBolic (University of Leeds)
In 2026, aspects of the Pigment project were developed through ParaBolic, a collaborative research project with the University of Leeds. The project explored pigment-making, material practice and creative enquiry through a series of workshops and collaborative activities.
