A special edition of ‘A Geography of Colour’ podcast with painter Katrina Blannin, talking about colour and painting with Ruth Philo, from the Sluice Expo 'World Buidling' in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland with LungA School, originally broadcast on Seyðisfjörður Community Radio, May 2025.
Katrina Blannin was born in London, UK where she currently lives and works. Since graduating from the Royal College of Art in 1997 she has shown her work extensively in the UK and abroad, co-directed artist run project spaces, curated exhibitions and written about contemporary painting. In 2021 she completed a Painting by Practice PhD at the University of Worcester. She teaches as an Associate Lecturer at UAL Camberwell for BA Painting and Foundation Drawing/Conceptual Practice; UCA Canterbury and works both on the editorial board and the mentoring programme for Turps Banana, London, UK.
https://www.katrinablannin.com/
All content for A Geography of Colour is the property of Ruth Philo and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
A special edition of ‘A Geography of Colour’ podcast with painter Katrina Blannin, talking about colour and painting with Ruth Philo, from the Sluice Expo 'World Buidling' in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland with LungA School, originally broadcast on Seyðisfjörður Community Radio, May 2025.
Katrina Blannin was born in London, UK where she currently lives and works. Since graduating from the Royal College of Art in 1997 she has shown her work extensively in the UK and abroad, co-directed artist run project spaces, curated exhibitions and written about contemporary painting. In 2021 she completed a Painting by Practice PhD at the University of Worcester. She teaches as an Associate Lecturer at UAL Camberwell for BA Painting and Foundation Drawing/Conceptual Practice; UCA Canterbury and works both on the editorial board and the mentoring programme for Turps Banana, London, UK.
https://www.katrinablannin.com/
This month on A Geography of Colour podcast I am talking with painter Sarah Needham about her relationship with colour.
Sarah lives and works in North London. Her painting is concerned with the way in which pigments leave material colour across human history, geography and traces of our interactions. Often something happening now prompts her research into a historical event or place and her paintings develop from this. Sarah makes oil paints by hand from pigments and often sources these in the landscape relevant to a particular project. Her work is abstract and she describes her paintings as ‘spaces to fall into’.
There is a sense in which these colours hold nuance and space for connection as well as symbolism. She has visited the 20,000 year old cave paintings in Pech Merle, learnt about the material traceability of ochres and has researched the British Library archive to find out about the historical spread of cobalt based glazes through archaeological finds. She has also researched the pigments imported into St Katharine docks at the time of the abolitionist movement, and found indigo, a slave trade product, a colour of both exploitation and beauty. She is currently working on a project collecting pigments and materials related to places impacted by the witch panics of the 1600s.
Thanks to Arts Council England for supporting this project with a Develop Your Creative Practice Grant..
LINKS:
https://www.sarahneedhamartist.co.uk
Pigment Compendium by Nicholas Eastaugh, Valentine Walsh, Tracey Chaplin, Ruth Siddall, Routledge, 2008 https://www.routledge.com/Pigment-Compendium/Eastaugh-Walsh-Chaplin-Siddall/p/book/9780750689809
Indigo: Egyptian Mummies to Blue Jeans by Jenny Balfour Paul, British Museum Publications, 2011 https://www.britishmuseumshoponline.org/trade/indigo.html
https://www.ruthphilo.co.uk
@ageographyofcolour
https://www.contemporarybritishpainting.com
@paintbritain
@aceagrams
A Geography of Colour
A special edition of ‘A Geography of Colour’ podcast with painter Katrina Blannin, talking about colour and painting with Ruth Philo, from the Sluice Expo 'World Buidling' in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland with LungA School, originally broadcast on Seyðisfjörður Community Radio, May 2025.
Katrina Blannin was born in London, UK where she currently lives and works. Since graduating from the Royal College of Art in 1997 she has shown her work extensively in the UK and abroad, co-directed artist run project spaces, curated exhibitions and written about contemporary painting. In 2021 she completed a Painting by Practice PhD at the University of Worcester. She teaches as an Associate Lecturer at UAL Camberwell for BA Painting and Foundation Drawing/Conceptual Practice; UCA Canterbury and works both on the editorial board and the mentoring programme for Turps Banana, London, UK.
https://www.katrinablannin.com/
