An Autumn Gathering, Mark Hearld’s new exhibition at Freya Mitton in central London, brings together a series of mixed media collages made between the last cut of wheat and Bonfire Night. Lurchers, hares, a Pomeranian gander and the pigeon lofts of Whitby and Staithes are all cut from hand-painted paste-paper, then worked over with dip pen, oil bar and pastel. Alongside the collages, Mark is exhibiting a group of freestanding, powder-coated sculptures inspired by weather vanes, and a series of hand-painted slipware vessels. Here, Mark shares some of the walks, visits and memories behind the new work.
"I’m in full flow, and a visitor to the studio asks “are you okay in there?”, referring to the rich mulch of creative debris heaped all around me: shards and snippings, paint pots and paint tubes, various pairs of scissors which disappear when I’m looking for them, and a growing collection of new works, taped to the walls, and stacked on the plan chest.
All summer long, as though the long days would never end, I walked late every evening, between nine and ten, and then eight and nine, but as the nights have closed in, I began working on a couple of collages on the studio floor, fondly remembering the balmy evenings.
Stubble Lurchers features my walking companions Brio and Damsel, sharply cut out against the painted stubble plain, and safely, on a separate large sheet of paper, Hares Galore (there really were – six plus on occasion… I struggled to contain Damsel’s youthful zeal). A trip to The National Poultry Fair in Lincoln to see a fine display of fowl, and a blue-eyed, eye-catching Pomeranian gander, brought to mind the pied geese in an orchard at Bridge Farm, close to my childhood home – September Windfalls combines both, Ellison’s Pippins on the ground, or were they Laxton’s Superb? Pigeon Loft recalls visits to allotments in Whitby and Staithes, with racing pigeons wheeling overhead. The humble pigeon is a favourite bird, and it has been fun to build the lofts and shacks out of paper.
This body of work has been made between the last cut of wheat and Bonfire Night, probably my favourite time of the year, brambly with rich pickings from the garden in deep colour combinations: dahlias, Michaelmas daisies, and orchard fruits in dusky bloom.
I begin with colour.
When I start, I make a new colour palette, painting out sheets of paste-paper, a flour and water paste brought to the boil on the stove, with pigment added in an array of enticing colours.
It becomes hypnotic, all-consuming.
By the end of the day the whole studio floor is covered, I have to tiptoe between sheets, and I am exhausted, but it sets the tone for all that follows. Each sheet provides the perfect foil to the flatness of commercially produced coloured paper, and I add to this with scratchy dip pen marks, the visceral daubs of oil bar and oil pastel, and paint stipples.
Gesture is vital to bring life to the work, but the skill is in taking it to the edge without running over into absolute chaos."
An Autumn Gathering is at Freya Mitton, 6 Mason’s Yard, London SW1Y 6BU, from 9 to 20 November 2026. Explore the exhibited works →
