Turning stones

Wandering the riverbank this afternoon I must have turned over twenty or thirty pottery fragments looking for something interesting. All of them turned out to be plain white. Pieces of old tile, cups and plates. But finally I found this, one of the prettiest fragments I have ever found.

If you are searching for something, keep looking.

The museum of broken things

It wasn't until yesterday that I realised I hadn't walked along the riverbank since before the flooding. Perhaps that meant I hadn't fully come to terms with the scale of events, the power of the river and the effect on us all. It's been a tiring, stressful period and I think I needed to see the river again.

I love to collect. The act of beachcombing or mudlarking slows me down. It makes me focus. It makes my brain work at things in a very primative (in a good way) manner. I think there is something about the act of sorting and searching that helps me settle and regain my composure.

Yesterday I enjoyed findng the usual 19th century pottery fragments in and amongst the horrible 21st century filth, washed up on the riverbank. But the other thing I have previously observed in numbers are shoe and leather parts. Never before have I found a whole shoe though, which made me think I wonder how old these are? The sheer numbers suggest this is the rubbish from a cobblers. I know there was a tannery just upstream until around 1900/1908; I wonder if there was a leatherworker there too?

If anyone has any thoughts let me know.

This time last year...

This time last year I was part way through my project called 'Linear Mapping'. The project involved recording or mapping a series of short walks in the local countryside and also some in my native Chilterns. I was reflecting on this yesterday while I was out walking. Since then my walking habits have changed a bit, with a dog to take with me on my journeys. We don't always want to stop and 'sniff around' in the same spots but are learning some give and take. Being out walking at different times has given me some wonderful encounters with nature. Yesterday while I was taking photos of bluebells we were both startled by a pair of deer thundering past us just a few feet away.

Linear Mapping is on my mind a lot at the moment as I will be showing the work during Saltaire Arts Trail in a few weeks. To accompany this I am currently in the process of putting together an artist's edition, that documents the project. I am enjoying the process of bringing all the different strands together and finishing the process of documentation. With any luck these editions should be ready in time for the trail... not long now!

Pacing myself

The last few weeks I have been focusing intensely on organising all my 'walks' for the installation for Pinpoint II at One Church Street Gallery. I have been working on this project since early spring so it was helpful to get all my thoughts together and consider the presentation of the work. The pieces will be a series of linear maps, documenting a sequence of walks from my home near Bingley, and also from my Mother's home in Buchinghamshire.

It seems I now have rather longer to plan the work as the exhibition has been postponed until next year... more thinking time I suppose.

walk 10 bundles

Walk 10

Prestwood to Great Missenden

passing Andlows Farm

through wood and fields to Great Missenden

back up past Gypsy House and Angling Spring Farm

Studio play

I have so many things on the go at the moment I worry they will all jumble into one at any moment. So I am conscious of trying to keep them sperate. Inevitably I end up picking up one thing to work on and then dipping into a different project.

Here are images of the eco-print silk bundle from walk 7. It is a rather good print, which seems a shame as I was planning to cut it into ribbons... perhaps I'll leave it a while.

Walk 8 - early morning walk

Very early morning walk

insomnia

restless

whirring mind

Blasted by sound and scent

Birdsong erupting from the riverbank

Bats still flying over the rooftops

 Wish I could capture the heady scent of early morning

Heightened senses

Walk 7 - just a little walk

a little walk

from home along the riverbank

chocolate brown water

fast flowing and higher than normal (for the time year)

muddy underfoot

collecting yellow flowers;

buttercup

oil seed rape

yellow flag iris

and others

bundled into silk

along the river

collected reflections

an underwater world

light and shade

down to the waters edge

foaming water

evening light and soothing, lapping water

falling away

lightness

air

on my skin

collecting yellowed ivy leaves on my way home

Walk 6

From Prestwood to Denner Hill in the rain.

Down country lanes

The sound of a cuckoo

Green leaves

White flowers

Making hasty bundles in the wet

Soaked through

Walk 5

A river walk

from home along the river Aire and meandering

birds darting overhead and into the riverbank

beautiful sound of birdsong

bright sunlight catching the water

lush green

butterflies

silk soaked in the orange spring

wrapped with plants from the woods there

beech leaves

bluebells

bracken

ivy & ramsons

not expecting any marks but a pleasing bundle

everything here 'greened'

last of the bluebells

a new path by the walled walk

a way down to the river

a shiny green beetle

sitting with my boots in the river

connections between land and water *** to be explored

fluidity

up to the woods

playing with(in) shadows

painting with light

past the castle and down the hill

homeward