Lucille at Prospect Cottage
Lucille came to the south east to visit Dungeness, including Derek Jarman‘s Prospect Cottage and surrounding area.
Lucille Clerc is a French graphic designer and illustrator based in London. After graduating from Central Saint Martins with an MA in Communication Design, she set up her studio. She works in editorial design and illustration for books and magazines, mainly but also for the fashion industry and occasionally creating interior or exhibition spaces.
Much of her work is inspired by London’s architecture and the relationship between nature and urbanisation. In the past five years, she has studied green spaces in London and Paris. Her work is mainly handcrafted, from drawing to screenprinting, which allows her to create large-scale compositions architectural portraits of her favourite places and explore their past and present lives.
Lucille has been a member of Print Club London in Dalston for 14 years now, where her studio is based.
1. Prospect Cottage - Day
2. Prospect Cottage - Night
Both prints are five layer screen prints
40 x 70 cm, editions of 20. Signed and numbered
3. Dungeness Triptych 1/3 - A Tree in the Desert
4. Dungeness Triptych 2/3 - To the Edge of the World
5. Dungeness Triptych 3/3 - Sailing Through the Desert
All three prints are four layer screen prints
34.5 x 61 cm, editions of 35. Signed and numbered
Lucille The Dungeness Garden series is a set of five hand-drawn illustrations, hand printed, screen printed in CMYK process (four layers). It is composed of a diptyque day and night in Prospect Cottage, a tribute to the wonderful garden created by Derek Jarman and his pioneer vision of modern landscaping design (my garden’s boundaries are the horizon), integrating the local nature as part of his creation.
The three other prints depict the surroundings of Prospect Cottage. All the prints share the same horizon line, so it continues from one print to the next and extends outside the boundaries of the frames. One is inspired by the boat graveyard across Prospect Cottage and a particular boat that looked ready to sail despite its big hole and stitched-up boards.
I loved looking at all the textures of paints and signs
of time. I’m always drawn towards things with a story and an imperfect side rather than brand-new shiny things. This will inspire more prints for sure! The second is inspired by the old railway, which looks like it will take you right into the sea, which I find very poetic. The third is a dead, almost fossilised tree shaped by the wind. It stands lonely in the middle of a blossoming meadow, which evokes the survival instinct you feel everywhere in Dungeness. Having had a pretty chaotic health in recent years, this is something that I truly admire in nature and which fascinates me.
"I am attracted by the resilience, pure sense of optimism, and serenity emanating from Prospect Cottage and its surroundings. It’s like a little paradise oasis in the middle of a shingle desert."
To manage to relocate indigenous plants and grow them to create his garden is a little miracle in itself. Even more so while consciously adding compost for plants to survive and cover it under a thin shingle layer so that everything appears like it’s always been there. There is something very modest and deeply respectful of one’s environment, which I find very moving as a way to create at a time when everything has to be spectacular and extreme to be noticed.
At first, this place seems like it’s been forgotten by nature. It has strong sunlight and low rainfall and resembles an ocean of tiny pink rocks. A few houses and boats seem to have arrived there by accident. Things that keep growing here have worked out their survival mechanism, roots extending to 20 feet long or ways to store water. In the same way, you don’t choose
to live there other than by choice.
Prospect Cottage’s garden is open without a fence or border, extending towards the horizon. It is a beautiful way to conceive a garden and look at life more broadly.
The choice of indigenous plants over fancy exotic plants and the mix of found objects as sculptures give rhythm to the garden and create a little intimate world of his own. Derreck Jarman sadly is no longer with us, but his creation remains, and when you walk in his garden, there is something very special in the air.
Lucille Clerc - Illustrator + Printmaker
lucilleclerc.com
info@lucilleclerc.com
Instagram. lucille_clerc