Soil Alchemy

An evolving body of art, writing and ideas.

I’m Victoria Holmes, a Devon-based artist - Fields of Imagination is my experimental studio, where imagination meets agroecology and I co-create with the land - soil, earth pigments and other land based materials as collaborators.

Some pieces are born from soil chromatography, which reveals the hidden patterns of life beneath our feet, which invite you to see soil not as dirt, but as an abundant, living realm holding the memory of place and time. Each chromatography artwork is a portal, a timestamp and a tangible way to make the unseen beauty of soil, visible.

Like all nature, I see soil not only as life force but as a living collaborator, teeming with intelligence, resilience and unseen beauty. Animals too, walk beside me as teachers, mirrors and collaborators, and much of my art features them too.

I am currently based at Positive Light Studios in Exeter, where I am developing a body of work that includes bespoke commissions, exhibitions, and workshops connecting people to the hidden life of soil and the more-than-human.

“To hold the soil is to hold a story. To place it in art is to remember we belong.”