Fractured | Ground Study

Encaustic wax, natural earth pigment, ground coal, and handmade organic gesso on 12oz cotton duck canvas.

Fractured | Ground Study is a small, materially dense painting rooted in processes of pressure, erosion, and time. Layered using a hand-made organic gesso ground composed of earth and mineral matter, the surface is built slowly, allowing natural fractures to emerge through drying, heat, and restraint.

Ground coal is worked into the gesso, embedding the residue of ancient carbon; a fossilised material formed through time, into the surface. Encaustic wax is burned into the gesso sealing and preserving the fractured ground while holding subtle shifts of tone and texture. The wax both stabilises and reveals the breaks within the surface, emphasising fragility and endurance.

The painting speaks of rupture and resilience, of matter shaped by elemental forces. In its modest scale, Fractured | Ground Study holds the same conceptual weight as Gunn’s larger works — a meditation on impermanence, material memory, and the beauty found within things that bear the marks of their making.