In this hands-on workshop, you'll learn how to create your own cyanotypes, using the food we grow, cook and share to explore food as a lens through which to interpret and understand the natural world.

A photographic, camera-less process which uses UV light to expose light-sensitive paper and create striking blue and white prints, cyanotypes gained prominence through Anna Atkins’ 1843 publication Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions. Christina will guide you through the cyanotype process, sharing its historical context and practical application, followed by time to experiment and create your own prints in a relaxed and welcoming environment.

This workshop is suitable for all ages, no prior experience is required and all materials will be provided, however, feel free to bring your own food related materials to print with!

About Christina Riley:

Christina Riley is a Florida born, Ayrshire based artist and writer whose work explores themes of place, memory, and the natural world. Author of Looking Down at the Stars: Life Beneath the Waves (Saraband, 2025) and The Beach Today (Guillemot Press, 2021), the influence of books and reading on her practice led her to start The Nature Library, exploring the role of literature in times of climate crisis through library installations, workshops, artist’s books, and various art and ecological collaborations.

For Blank Canvas Christina will bring together photography, books and food, inviting local people to share their own recipes, cooking tips and food memories to form a community cookbook. Borrowing her title from artist and enthusiastic cook Georgia O’Keeffe, the project celebrates the beauty of the recipe book, and the value of knowledge sharing in our communities during times of climate, cost of living and misinformation crises. Throughout the month she will design and bind the book, and take a series of photographs developed in Narture's darkroom to illustrate the book. The space will include an installation of The Nature Library dedicated to books on food, growing, agriculture, weather and climate.

BLANK CANVAS PROGRAMME:

Blank Canvas is a six month Artists in Residence programme from June-December 2026 in Make at 30 Newmarket Street, Ayr. Each artist will have a month-long, public-facing artist residency in Ayr, curated by Narture CIC looking at Food and Art. It invites creatives from different disciplines to develop new work in a visible street-level studio, with the process unfolding in real time from making through to final exhibition. The programme focuses on food, art, sustainability and regeneration, and includes community engagement, workshops and open studio practice as part of the work. More info-https://www.instagram.com/p/DVvgTYdjMJq/?igsh=ODFzbmkxYTQzOGxp

Contact the host of Cyanotype Workshop with Christina Riley