Tim Pugh is an Environmental Artist based in Flintshire and Cumbria, working with a wide range of mixed media and processes that are used to create temporary site specific installations and drawings.
Since graduating from Edinburgh College of Art, Tim has exhibited his work in galleries and and venues across the UK and internationally and has participated in many residencies and exchange programmes working in a wide variety of natural and urban environments.
His inspiration is based on aspects related to the natural world but is increasingly informed by issue based concerns such as climate change, consumerism and maritime pollution.
Tim also conducts mixed media educational workshops working with school, higher education and community groups, helping people of all ages and abilities.
Tim has also been a Creative Agent and practitioner for the Lead Creative Schools team in Wales and has been a recipient of various creative awards, bursaries and prizes from many institutions and galleries.
Tim Pugh at work in Millom, Sept 2021. Photo by Irene Rogan.
WORKS
‘Borwick Spire’
Photograph of brick Installation
10/08/21
Borwick Rails, Millom, West Cumbria.
The temporary installation was created on the industrial shoreline of Borwick Rails, in Millom, West Cumbria, making use of old red bricks scattered along the tideline. I was influenced by images of past industrial activity related to the area, such as mine tools, implements and factory chimneys as well as the local church spire which is a prominent landmark in the vicinity.
‘Hodbarrow Train Drawing’
Photograph of Iron Ore/mixed media drawing
22/08/21
Borwick Rails, Millom, West Cumbria.
The artwork is a temporary drawing of outlines of the famous steam train 'Hodbarrow', which used to work in the local iron ore mine and iron works. I drew out the outlines on a piece of wood, retrieved from the tideline and 'painted' in the shapes with a mixture of locally sourced mud sediment and iron ore oxide. I had quite a few positive reactions from locals passing by who remembered the train and conveyed anecdotes of their times working in the mine.
‘Brick Arrangement’
Photograph of semi permanent installation
23/08/21
Borwick Rails, Millom, Cumbria.
The artwork consists of rearranged locally made industrial bricks collected from the tideline. Each brick has its origins stamped on its surface revealing the historical legacy of local brick building. The bricks have broken away from the dumped slag fringing the beach and lie casually on the beach as abandoned remnants of a bygone age. Every day, the tide covers the arrangement but it remains undisturbed with vegetation embedding the bricks into the mud.
‘Shifting Sands’
Photograph of mixed media installation
24/08/21
Borwick Rails, Millom, Cumbria.
The artwork documents the position of Duddon Estuary sandbanks and spits. The map detail was drawn onto a found fishing bag and 'painted' in with a mixture of water and sand sediment. The bag was attached to a metal bar and hoisted and positioned onto a large rock and hung like a banner. The irony is that there are no accurate site depictions of where the sand is located, due to the tides and storms continually shifting and depositing the sand. Again, passers by showed an interest with their own recollections and experiences of walking on the Estuary sands.
‘Tideline Beacon’
Photograph of brick installation
14/09/21
Borwick Rails, Millom, Cumbria.
The brick structure was created from abandoned bricks, on an artificial 'slag' beach, where industrial waste products were dumped into the sea. A passer by said the whole night sky lit up for miles when the slag waste was dumped from rail trucks straight into the estuary from the iron plant. The solid structure took seven hours to create and stands over 6 foot tall and displays the subtle colours and contrasts of the various sediments and mud associated with the local brick companies.
‘Tideline Beacon’
‘Duddon Beachmark’
Photograph of mixed media installation
15/09/21
Borwick Rails, Millom, West Cumbria.
The old small derelict boatyard on site has lots of interesting boat related items tied up on the waters' edge. I found a square piece of marble lying on a pallet and decided it could form the base of a plinth to accommodate a large buoy. By this time I was 'bricked out’ and had a sore back but managed to locate enough bricks to make a square plinth. The yellow buoy hints at the plastic maritime pollution crisis and the structure resembles a boat, seemingly ready to be launched but in reality, weighed down in the mud.
A couple of bemused bird watchers secretly observed me through binoculars but a really nice interaction came from a passing lady who commented on earlier works I had created. Word had spread in the community about my presence and it seems people were eager to see what I would create next ... the lady was very angry that someone had apparently dismantled the red spire I had made earlier!
‘Industrial Toad’
Photograph of mixed media drawing/installation.
17/09/21
Borwick Rails, Millom, Cumbria.
I sketched out an outline of a Natterjack Toad onto a concrete floor surface on the slag spur and infilled the shape with small industrial items such as concrete, glass ,slag waste and nuts and bolts. The Duddon Estuary is a favourable location for Natterjack Toads and apparently freely roams amidst the grown over former industrial sites. I used coal to darken the background, keeping in with my practice of mainly using locally harvested materials used in all of my responses.
‘Boatyard Fragments’
Photograph of metal arrangement.
15/09/21
Borwick Rails, Millom, Cumbria.
Whilst searching for bricks on the boatyard I kept finding old metal tool and machinery fragments presumably associated with the maintenance of the boats over the years.They had practically rusted away but each worn fragment I imagined, could tell stories of a bygone age. I laid them out, juxtaposed and interwoven next to each other on a random concrete slab thinking about the spaces around the objects and how the dimensions related to each other.
I went back a few days to see my response still intact, as with all the other undamaged interactions I've recently created on site.
‘Brickclay Marker’
Photograph of mixed media installation.
22/09/21
Borwick Rails, Millom, Cumbria.
For this response, I again sourced and collected bricks, this time of the same colour, to build a plinth platform, patiently building up each layer and slotting in correctly proportioned bricks like a dry stone wall arrangement.I located a tyre and filled out a brick wall inside the structure.
The dimensions of the manmade materials help to create a monolithic element, acting like models or maquettes hinting at bigger more permanent shoreline interactions.
I had lots of chats with passers-by, asking me what I was going to do next and I've come to realise that my connections forging links with the community has evolved into a precious outcome just as valid as my creative time here being artist in residence .
SEE ALSO …
Tim at Black Combe Junior School