Something for the Weekend…

‘A solitary heron,

silver grey, his stature great,

resides within the river village,

old man hunched and scouring,

 

bending legs to catch fish stirring,

face intent and gaunt and grave,

the pin persistence of his eyes

is trained to strike, devour, digest.

 

He is a noble fisherbird,

the fine line of his feathers

etched in wisdom…’

Heron – K. S. Moore

The river, already my old friend, has become even more of a sanctuary, and I cherish it…  Winter gives way to Spring and life stirs… Marauding ducks harass the moorhens, who strut like sergeant majors along the bank, squawking their discontent…. crows pass overhead, cawing to each other…and a lone buzzard circles, mewing in the wind… and in the liminal spaces between air, vegetation and water, stalks a heron, beady-eyed, beak poised… silently keeping just that step ahead of me as I walk along the opposite bank…(hence the slightly fuzzy photograph above……)

‘A good river is nature’s life work in song,’

Mark Helprin

The river changes daily; from a mirror’d surface with razor-sharp reflections, through gentle ripples to more turbulent waters, pewter ribbons, waves sweeping the banks…a metaphor for life….

Water is endlessly fascinating to me, in all its various guises, and someone else who has been inspired by water in the landscape is poet Simon Armitage…

The Stanza Stones Trail runs through 47 miles of the Pennine region, and along its route are 6 poems carved into stone, each telling of water in its differing forms; The Snow Stone, The Rain Stone, The Mist Stone, The Dew Stone, the Puddle Stones and The Beck Stones…

 

Although there are beautiful phrases and lines in each, I think The Rain Stone poem is my favourite…

‘Be glad of these freshwater tears,

Each pearled droplet some salty old sea-bullet

Air-lifted out of the waves,

Then laundered and sieved,

Re-cast as a soft bead and returned

And no matter how much it strafes or sheets,

It is no mean feat to catch one

raindrop in the mouth,

To take one drop on the tongue, tasting

Cloud pollen, grain of the heavens, raw sky

Let it teem, up here where the front of

the mind distils the brunt of the world,’

Simon Armitage

…and, once restrictions are lifted, and life returns to a semblance of normality, or whatever the new normal will become, the trail is somewhere I would love to explore…

Walking is vital to me, and, perhaps because we are unable to go far at the present time, I have been drawn back to ‘Wanderlust’ by Rebecca Solnit…

Walking is a form of meditation for me, and I am lucky that I have such a wonderful space so close by…

‘The rhythm of walking generates a kind of rhythm of thinking, and the passage through a landscape echoes or stimulates the passage through a series of thoughts. This creates an odd consonance between internal and external passage, one that suggests that the mind is also a landscape of sorts and that walking is one way to traverse it…And so one aspect of the history of walking is the history of thinking made concrete – for the motions of the mind cannot be traced, but those of the feet can,’ (p.5 & 6, Wanderlust, R. Solnit) 

From the ancient Greeks, Romantic poets, authors and latter-day thinkers, Solnit draws together ‘A History of Walking’…from pilgrimages to protest marches, from landscape to urban, she examines the significance of ‘walking’…

‘Walking has created paths, roads, trade routes, generated local and cross-continental senses of place; shaped cities, parks, generated maps, guidebooks, gear, and further afield, a vast library of walking stories and poems of pilgrimages, mountaineering expeditions, meanders, and summer picnics. The landscapes, urban and rural, gestate the stories, and the stories bring us back to the sites of this history,’ (p.2, Wanderlust, R. Solnit)

In last week’s ‘Something for the Weekend’ post I highlighted Norman Ackroyd as being one of my favourite artists, and regular readers will know that Robert MacFarlane is one of my favourite authors…so how wonderful that BBC Radio 4 is re-broadcasting the episode of ‘Only Artists‘ where these two are in conversation…

Claire Leach, this week’s ‘Instagram Artist of the Week’, is also inspired by the landscape – her favourite area being the Forest of Dean…a beautiful area of ancient forest on the English/Welsh border…

Claire Leach

Claire has tried many artistic mediums including photography, ceramics and painting.  She always saw herself as a painter but during the second year of her Fine Art degree at the University of Gloucester, she started ‘making more and more pencil drawings, culminating in a final degree show full of pencil drawings inspired by landscape and nature.’

Claire Leach

Claire admits that many of her drawings are inspired by the Forest of Dean; it’s a place she visited regularly as a child, ‘enjoying weekends cycling along muddy tracks, walking in the woods and canoeing down the River Wye.’ She finds it an endlessly magical place, ‘full of adventure and happy memories.’

Claire Leach

Claire produces the most incredibly detailed drawings, of which I am in awe of; neither my patience or lack of, nor my rheumatic fingers would allow me to create in this way!

Spring Blossom – Claire Leach

Claire has a wide-ranging list of favourite artists; from Claude Monet and the French Impressionists, Peter Doig and David Hockney, as well as printmakers, Norman Ackroyd and Emma Stibbon and not forgetting Tacita Dean and Tracey Emin…

Claire Leach

In common with a lot of artists, Claire would love a ‘beautiful studio space, with lots of natural light, big windows with far-reaching views and a designated place to make a mess without guilt.’ In reality, she lives in a small flat, without space for a permanent studio, making do with ‘storing materials on a trolley and working from a small table,’ – but she still manages to produce delicate, intricate drawings…drawings that pull you, the viewer, in to have a closer look, to see what small details you can spot…

Claire Leach

I love Claire’s work; it speaks of someone who really looks closely at nature, taking in the often overlooked corners…do take a look at her Instagram feed…it is full of the most wonderful pen and ink artworks…

For now, it’s back to where I started…water, and the river…

‘…where water unbinds

hangs at the waterfall’s face, and

just for that one, stretched

white moment

become lace,’

The Beck – Simon Armitage

I hope you have found something to interest and inspire you,

Take care,

C

(If you would like to keep up-to-date with work-in-progress, please follow me on my social media;

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Something for the Weekend….

‘November is the pearl-grey month,

the changeling between warm crimson October

and cold white December,

the month when the leaves fall

in slow drifting whirls,

and the shapes of the trees are revealed,

when the earth imperceptibly wakes,

and stretches her bare limbs and

displays her stubborn unconquerable strength

before she settles uneasily into winter.

November is secret and silent,’

Alison Uttley

November has been a pearl-grey month, if not downright dank at times…there is a word, ‘petrichor (n.)’  – that conjures up that distinctive earthy smell rising from the ground after a rainfall… At present, the ground is so sodden and squelchy there is no chance of the aroma of freshly damp soil…

The damp and dreary weather certainly makes me want to ‘pull up the drawbridge’, close the curtains, light the fire and some candles and hibernate…but someone who went out in all seasons, walking, exploring, observing…was Nan Shepherd…

Born near Aberdeen in 1893, Shepherd spent a lifetime exploring the Caingorm mountains, recording in detail the rivers, rocks, animals and hidden aspects of this landscape. She writes with a beautiful poetic prose…this passage being one of my favourites…

‘The hands have an infinity of pleasure in them…the feel of things, textures, surfaces, rough things like cones and bark, smooth things like stalks and feathers and pebbles rounded by water, the teasing of gossamers, the delicate tickle of a crawling caterpillar, the scratchiness of lichen, the warmth of the sun, the sting of hail, the blunt blow of tumbling water, the flow of wind – nothing that I can touch or that touches me but has its own identity for the hand as much as for the eye…’ (p102-103 The Living Mountain, Nan Shepherd)

…and her thoughts on water…

‘…when a cloud bursts, or rain teems out of the sky for days on end without intermission then the burns come down in spate…the water , which streams down the hillsides, tears deep grooves in the soil, rolls the boulders about,  brawls, obliterates…becomes a moving sea. I love its flash and gleam, its music, its pliancy and grace, its slap against my body…all the mysteries are in its movement. It slips out of holes in the earth like the ancient snake…,’

The Living Mountain is a beautiful  book; it’s not about conquering the mountains, but about living amongst them, learning about the environment and the mountains as a living entity… The book might be slim but there is a whole lifetime of observations and experience packed into its pages…

A nature writer I have recently discovered is Nicola Chester. Living in the heart of the North Wessex Downs, she contributes to various publications as well as writing RSPB Spotlight: Otters. She writes a blog charting the changing seasons and landscape, the flora and fauna of her local landscape…her writing creates provides such a picture of this one small corner, from the overall countryside to the tiny, often overlooked, details… I find it fascinating and it certainly encourages me to look beyond the obvious when I am out and about or by the river…

 

 

My ‘Instagram Artist of the Week’ is a very dear on-line friend, Alice Cox Humphreys…Alice lives in New Mexico and, although she dabbled with painting ‘decades’ ago, it is only within the last few years that she has taken up her paint brush again… Working mostly in watercolours, although she does like to experiment – (we often exchange material ideas) – Alice produces the most delicate, ethereal, semi-abstract paintings…

I love this one…such delicate washes, interesting marks…and of course, some of my favourite colours!!

Although this one is more representational it has a loose quality, so expressive…and a wonderful use of a limited palette…as is this one…

…and this one…

Alice also paints the most beautiful floral images…the brush techniques really show through in this one…

I love the way this is almost abstract; there is just enough information but still leaves a lot to the viewer’s imagination…

As with all the artists I have featured, or had contact with on-line or in real life, Alice is so generous with her advice, support and encouragement…in my head, when I am dreaming ‘big’, I imagine an actual ‘Instagram Artist of the Week’ get-together; a gathering where we celebrate our artistic endeavours and community…one day it would be lovely to meet… In the meantime, I have to enjoy Alice’s work virtually…imagining the landscapes that have inspired her work…

Do go and check out her Instagram feed…it is filled with the most beautiful work…as well as the odd image of blue skies and sunshine…something that is in short supply here this week…

I don’t seem to have done much painting this week; as the end of the year draws near, I have begun to take stock of my ‘annual achievements’, trying hard not to be too negative, too hard on myself for not doing everything I had intended…and this is leading me to make tentative plans for next year…one of which is to change website hosts and re-vamp my site. Now those of you who know me are aware that I am a technophobe, so this is a major plan, one that I am having to break down into baby steps in order that I don’t get so overwhelmed that I don’t even start. I want to include some studio shots – and have therefore spent some time looking at my ‘arty’ photos…and so far, after a dismal week, this is the only one I have that I actually like…

 

Oh well, as with lots of things, its a work-in-progress…in the meantime…I head back to the river…to read and ponder…

“I thought how lovely and how strange a river is. A river is a river, always there, and yet the water flowing through it is never the same water and is never still. It’s always changing and is always on the move. And over time the river itself changes too. It widens and deepens as it rubs and scours, gnaws and kneads, eats and bores its way through the land…

Are people like that? I wondered. Am I like that? Always me, like the river itself, always flowing but always different, like water flowing in the river, sometimes walking steadily along andante, sometimes surging over rapids furioso, sometimes meandering with hardly any visible movement tranquilo, lento, ppppianissimo, sometimes gurgling giacoso with pleasure, sometimes sparkling brillante in the sun, sometimes lacrimoso, sometimes appassionata, sometimes misterioso, sometimes pesante, sometimes legato, sometimes staccato, sometimes sospirando, sometimes vivace, and always, I hope, amoroso.

Do I change like a river, widening and deepening, eddying back on myself sometimes, bursting my banks sometimes when there’s too much water, too much life in me, and sometimes dried up from lack of rain? Will the I that is me grow and widen and deepen? Or will I stagnate and become an arid riverbed? Will I allow people to dam me up and confine to wall so that I only flow where they want? Will I allow them to turn me into a canal to use for their own purposes? Or will I make sure I flow freely, coursing my way through the land ploughing a valley of my own,” –

‘Aidan Chambers, This is All: The Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn’

Well that’s all for this week; I hope you found something to interest you, and perhaps some further reading and artistic inspirations…

Enjoy the weekend,

Take care,

C

(If you would like to keep up-to-date with my work, please follow me on social media, or, for more of my ramblings, musings, offerings and other art-related ‘stuff’, please sign up via the link opposite to receive my monthly(ish) newsletter.

 

 

 

Further Friday Fun….

I know….my posts are like buses… you wait ages for one and then two arrive almost together…

Anyhow,  remembering that Friday is supposed to be my ‘play day’…although I actually started dabbling with these yesterday… I have continued experimenting…

Working in mixed media I am looking at ways of capturing the ethereal quality of sky and water, interspersed with bird flight/song… apologies for sounding pretentious…

I began in my trusty square sketchbook from Seawhite of Brighton using Daniel Smith Indigo watercolour and sepia FWAcrylic ink applied over white oil pastel…

Going darker…

Today I have been working on Cass Art Mixed Media paper 250gsm…

…tearing it up to make the similar portrait style…

I do work with quite a lot of water and I found the paper started to curl which made it a bit awkward when applying the ink…(I am lazy and don’t stretch, hence I like 250/300lb paper)…however, I like the high white, slightly rough textured surfaced and the curling did result in some interesting effects…and they are drying flat.  Not sure where these are going but will continue to experiment!!

What is your preferred surface/paper…?

The Artist’s Curse…..

Spent the morning experimenting…..actually just playing, with no particular aims, or thought…

Using the sample paper I got from St.Cuthbert’s Mill at the Patchings Art Festival – a mixture of Saunders Waterford and Bockingford – I put the pigment directly onto the paper before adding water, ink, and in some cases, granulation fluid…with somewhat mixed results…

…perhaps that was to be expected as I definitely wasn’t feeling it …..

Even tried a colour I don’t usually use – Perylene Red – in an effort to get the creative juices flowing….not sure it worked….

Decided to take a closer look at one of the pieces….

…and thought that if I turned it on it’s side….

…I could potentially see honesty seed heads and teasels….so I did the fatal thing, the artist’s curse….and fiddled…

….you would think I would know by now – what can I say, I’m a slow learner …oh well back to playing….oh sorry, I mean experimenting…

Magic in the Water…

Despite living in central England I love the water….I really empathise with this quote by Loren Eiseley – ‘If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.’ (Although, I hasten to add, I also find magic in the mountains….) Whether it’s the sea, a lake, a river, stream, puddle, rivulet or ripple, there is something about water that draws me to it….

Just over 100yards from where I live is the River Soar and is a favourite place of mine to wander along, to sit awhile….

…to ponder and wonder….to such an extent that I am now reading Tristan Gooley’s book, ‘How To Read Water; Clues and Patterns from Puddles to the Sea’..

Along with the physical properties of water, Gooley intertwines history, anthropology and his own experiences…am finding it fascinating…..

Water also plays a large part in my attempts at art….and I have spent the morning playing with my favourite Daniel Smith watercolours, lots of water, sepia ink and granulation fluid – something I had forgotten I had until Ann Blockley used it in her demo at Patchings Art Festival…

I used Saunders Waterford 140lb NOT paper produced by St. Cuthbert’s Mill and Daniel Smith watercolours – Perylene Green, Lunar Blue, Blue Apatite Genuine, Moonglow and my favourite, Rich Gold Green…along with granulation fluid and a black watercolour pencil…and water!

The following three are my favourites – judiciously cropped and framed using Photoshop…

Not sure where this experimentation will lead to, if anywhere, but it’s fun…and, being a person who puts such pressure on myself to produce masterpieces every time I pick up a brush…having fun and enjoying my art is something I should concentrate on….the magic will come, hopefully!!

Learning to trust the process & enjoy the journey…

 

I don’t want this post to be a wallowing ‘Woe is me’ post but feel I have to fill in some of the background details so the above title becomes clear….

I have really struggled since graduating from Loughborough University to find direction in my art. Although it was stressful, I thoroughly enjoyed creating Connecting Threads, my final piece based on the canals and cotton mills of the Midlands.

Connecting Threads

A large scale installation that included sound, I found it difficult, for varying reasons, to pursue this genre of art once I had graduated. I therefore reverted to a medium which was more practical – drawing and painting; I even managed to sell two or three pieces.

Bowed But Not Broken

Still, I found it difficult to define my style, subject matter and medium – I dabbled with pencil, ink, charcoal and watercolour…..nonetheless I felt lost, going from tightly drawn figurative pieces such as Bowed But Not Broken to looser interpretations of the Lincolnshire landscape and the West Wales Coast…

Fenland Memories

Cei Bach

No longer in the bubble of university I felt alone, rudderless, doubting that I  would ever achieve my dreams. It’s now I have to admit to spending a lot of time on social media, procrastinating…..And it’s there that I came across the work of the self-proclaimed ‘watercolour addict’ Jean Haines. I must admit I enjoy using watercolours although I have had no formal training, which could be viewed as a good thing! Whilst I appreciate the skill of the more formal watercolour artists, I was drawn to Jean’s work because she paints in a loose manner, letting the pigment and water work together to create pieces full of life, light and energy. Suffice to say I was hooked and became a bit of a ‘Jean Haines’ addict ( or should that read stalker, in the nicest possible way I hope), reading her blog watercolourswithlife.blogspot.co.uk,  her books, looking at her dvds, watching her demonstrate at the Patchings Art Festival…

The icing on the cake – attending one of Jean’s workshops – came this August; an early birthday present from my very supportive husband. What is immediately evident on meeting Jean is her sheer passion for watercolour! The day was filled with brilliant demonstrations, one to one sessions, and fun and laughter all the way! Jean is a very generous teacher, spending time making everyone feel special..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The above sunflower piece still requires further work, but I came away inspired…

Jean advocates starting each of your painting sessions playing with pigment to produce three individual washes to help you learn how the colours mix (or not) and I have been endeavouring to follow her advice and teachings. (I would add here, that I take no credit for the methods and subject matter – they are all Jean’s and Jean’s alone.)

I have practised the following exercises from her books and dvds…and posted the results, good or bad, on Twitter and Facebook..

As I said earlier, Jean is a very generous lady, and even though she is super busy and very much in demand, she always finds time to comment on my efforts, giving encouragement and suggesting ways to improve.

Initially I struggled, but gradually I have become more confident, trusting myself more and, from just being pleased when I managed to produce ‘something’, I have found myself seeing areas for improvement, and more importantly, knowing what needs to be done….

I shall endeavour to chart my progress in subsequent posts but suffice to say I am learning to trust the process and …yes I am enjoying it!