Meet the Conservationist & Resident Artist Maisie McNeice


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Maisie McNeice

Conservation Fellow - supported by Amazon Aid

Maisie McNeice is an interdisciplinary artist working in printmaking, drawing and installation. Much of her work has a deep connection with nature and is crafted using foraged natural materials. She makes her own mineral pigments and inks from rocks, clays and plants, and incorporates organic structures, human artefacts, and animal track impressions in her installations.

Themes related to conservation and the integration of art and science are central to her artistic practice. Maisie was raised in a lion research camp in Southern Africa and has worked at several biological research stations in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. She is currently collaborating with Peruvian reforestation centre Camino Verde as a botanical illustrator, and is experimenting with indigenous European flora from her home in rural Italy.

Learn more about Maisie McNeice


March 26, 2021

Meet the Conservationist & Resident Artist Maisie McNeice

 

Since 2015 I have had the privilege of collaborating with inspiring researchers & conservationists. I began my work in Peru as a resident artist on a variety of biological research stations in the Peruvian amazon, my objective was to be immersed in the wilderness, and to see what emerged.

Each station had trail systems in place, which I hiked and explored in great depth. I would leave first thing in the morning and return at dusk. Totally absorbed in the forest, taking advantage of the freedom I had, I worked casting tracks by gesso and wax; collecting mineral pigments and foraging for plants and later extracting their colour.

Collecting the sap from Sangre de grado tree (Croton lechleri)
Grinding clay rocks along a stream to make pigments

In the morning I would mark off and cast along my trail, returning to find what animal activity there had been during the night. I became engrossed in ideas of personal paths, tracks, trails and imprints.

I like to completely integrate myself into the environment, finding ways to incorporate nature as my tools, moving within the realm of research and art practice, by investigating, observing and collecting.

Melting a candle in my can of tuna I had for lunch to capture the trace of an Agouti

Ocelot tracks printed using pigment found in same location
Preparing the Huito fruit(Genipapo) to make an ink

An installation of rubbings of tracks found in the Peruvian Amazon
 Studio research

 

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