Walking

It's been such a wet winter that I haven't done much walking - many of the walks I normally do have been subject to floods and erosion making it quite dangerous to walk in certain areas along the coast. But in avoiding certain areas then new paths have evolved and on one of them I made this recording of body movement during the walk - you can see the parts where it was raining and both I and the drawing got wet - I like the blurring though as it encapsulated the feeling of the walk - misty, damp and circumscribed.......

I have been carrying this tiny book (5cms square) in my rucksack for simply ages and I finally found a use for it - it was a giveaway from Kate at A disorganised life - thank you Kate - I loved using it and I'm going to adapt the idea to make further walking books. It has concertina pages so I can unfold it as the walk unfolds - lovely! I have had to scan the book in 2 parts as it is too long (50 cms) to do in one scan. I would like to post some photographs but I am still waiting for my camera to return from Canon services where it is receiving tender loving care after my accident with it on the beach on New Year's Day - an expensive mistake! But I will post another photo of the whole book when I get it back - hopefully soon as I really miss it!

Direction

It’s not so much that I haven’t got a direction but knowing which direction to take?

I too often have only the big picture which can be rather rose tinted at times!

So I’m left stumping around in the dark when I want to be clear about which way to proceed……

And not to have any of these…………………….

Finally I want to be feeling like this …….

On top of my world - rose tinted!

2013 has not started too well – I tripped on the beach and dunked my camera in the sea, jarring my back and feeling like a doddery old fool! (I’ve saved the photos but still waiting to see if the camera will work again)

and

now I have succumbed to the flu virus which has been threatening me with small bouts for the last month and had managed to keep at bay until yesterday!

I know it could all be a lot worse – everything changes and I’m sure I will feel brighter tomorrow and my direction become clearer…….

I hope the start to your new year has been better!

'Leave the camera at home' day

It was a beautiful sunny day yesterday so I took the opportunity to take a long walk starting with a 'latte' at one of my favorite places, the Cliff Top Cafe at  Whitsand Bay -  and walking along to Cawsand. I made a conscious decision to leave the camera at home in spite of my intention to take a photograph a day - I find that I look at things differently without the camera - I took my little sketchbook so instead of quickly snapping away my looking was more focused and recording much slower - time slowed down!

As luck would have it the tide was out and the first part of the walk was along the beach - I collected some sea washed fragments of shell and plastic - the plastic fragments must be very old and who knows what journey they have been on - I hate seeing rubbish on the beach (now there are a few less pieces) but I have to say they make intriguing images..........

so even though I didn't take the camera I still took photographs when I got home - how different they are from ones I would have taken on the beach! I'm quite intrigued to see how they look in monochrome.

The shell fragments I collected are quite small, some really tiny, and have a softness and warmth - they are almost pearlized from the constant washing of the sea - I have collected sea glass since moving down here 18 months ago and these are just as beautiful.

Because I have become engaged with grids again through following Liz Davidson's blog I have been working on creating a grid of details from 'man in a boat' painting which will be used as 'fragment investigation' for my degree project

my collection from the beach yesterday seemed an ideal way to lay them out - so many changes can be made - this is the first layout..............

I have a photograph selected for the drawing exhibition on the theme of SPEED at Plymouth University - it opens next week for 3 weeks in ArtSpace 101  

'Experimenting with a digital camera at night the image was drawn with light using a long exposure. The camera captures the movement of light reducing it to a still image, which reflects my efforts to keep up with the speed of technology and the way I can use digital tools to push the boundaries of traditional drawing. The river and surrounding landscape represents a calmer and more measured way of working, flowing and expansive. The enlargement of the photograph to 45 x 60cms causes a further blur to the image, which is intended as a metaphor for the transitory and fragmentary nature of existence.'

Weaving webs.....

Last week after several days rain I was rambling up on Dartmoor with my camera and found hundreds of webs strung across the gorse bushes - glistening with dew jewels!

Some were as large as 18 inches wide and how far the nest penetrated into the gorse I could only guess - the spider just disappeared down the tunnel at high speed when the camera came out!

I was fascinated both by the beauty and the strength of the structures - some of these dewdrops were quite large!

I am still getting to know my new camera (Canon G11) so these were taken on auto - once I get to grip with where all the manual controls are I will be experimenting - meantime I am very happy with the image quality!

As promised the final lino print

I had this ready to post 3 weeks ago and guess what - my 5 year old Sony digital camera and trusty friend got very sick - I have been told it is not worth mending but I am loath it throw it away - how I hate this throw away society! But I think I have to accept that it has now died and that I need a new one! I am looking at replacing it with a Canon G11 - has anyone got one and can recommend it? I want a compact camera that can do what an SLR can do - I know this is impossible but I keep looking!!

Anyway I finally printed this image in an edition of 10 - of which this one is the best! 'Dartmoor gorse in May'
As I said in my last post it was a reduction linocut - and this is what remained of the lino itself- not much as you can see - a few stalks at the bottom. I really liked the process and will do another one even if it does take forever!