Exhibition Update: Summer is Coming.

I was asked just over a month ago if I would like to exhibit in an empty shop in a local shopping centre. I'm always keen to exhibit locally as I am a strong advocate of community engagement and the ethos of the empty shop movement in this time of economic downturn. The shop is in the Maiden Place shopping centre, a pedestrianised area in Lower Earley, Reading on a road called Maiden Place. It will be a shop window display of some recent works for the whole of December.

Press release below.

 

Back from the East - part 3

After leaving the fens region I had another stop on my holiday to make.

Travelling from flat Fenland to the Suffolk/Essex borders was an interesting experience. First of all I really enjoyed the drive, even though I was constantly getting lost or being redirected due to road closures. It almost felt like the fens weren't going to let me go for a while there. Secondly I chose to drive via Theford Forest and after days of huge skies, it was a revelation to be amongst trees again.

Dedham Vale nr East Bergholt

 

It was really nice to see trees and hills again, apparently I had been unknowingly missing them. Though I would soon enough change my mind. After quite an extensive drive I arrived at my second home away from home, which would be mine for two nights. A Travellodge on the A12.

I had initially decided to stay in a Travellodge for this part of my trip for two reasons:
1. It was really, really near where I was going to the next day.
2. Having never stayed in a B&B before and yet knowing how many horror stories there are out there I wanted somewhere where experience told me I could be sure of a clean room, clean sheets and a decent shower.

Public footpaths East Bergholt

It was very convenient, only 5 miles from my location for the next day. However, it was also on the A12, which I had somehow forgotten was a busy road. All in all it wasn't nearly as nice as the other Travellodges I had stayed in and not as nice as where I had just come from. But enough of a grump, back to the real story.

After a passable night's sleep I went down to start my Constable adventure. I had grand plans for the day, wanting to try to spy out as many of Constable's views that became paintings as I could, hopefully with an intention to paint them myself. I certainly wanted to get a photograph of the Haywain location as well as take in one of the walks on the map. 

Row boats on the River Stour, Dedham

Deciding to start in East Bergholt I had a mooch around the town and started on one of the walks from my map, one that covered as many of the painting views that I could. It was a pleasant walk, but far longer and intense than I was expecting. I got mildly lost a few times, which is often fun but by about the halfway point I was very tired and quite footsore. Unfortunately it was a circular all or nothing type of walk so I had to keep going. Right at the end of the walk, apparently within spitting distance of the end, I seemed to get very lost, which was quite scary as I'd been going for about 4 hours at this point and really needed food and a sit down. I'd almost gone very wrong a few times before then, but somehow had made the right call, this time I didn't and ended up on footpaths my map didn't know existed. Happily after a lot of reading and a lot of guessing I ended up back at the car.

Many of the painting views were possible to work out where they were but impossible to get to, due to land having become private over the intervening years or time encouraging the growth of trees and bushes. But I found and photographed a few views on my walk and saw many great modern views.

After the immense walk (which I had never expected to take that long) and fuelled by a jam doughnut I still had the main focus of the day to do. Slightly regretting that I had not done it in the morning as the sunshine of the morning had become a cloudy and cold afternoon, I headed to Flatford mill.

Footpath through grounds of Langham Hall

It was really pretty around there, it was just a shame that I was too tired and grumpy not to appreciate it more. I did get some good images, especially as this place seems to have changed little since Constable's day. Boat-building near Flatford Mill was easy to spot, even if the dock was no longer dry.

On one hand it was a good job that I was so grumpy, to top everything off the spot where Constable painted the Haywain is behind a big “Private” sign. The buildings belong to the National Trust and the Field Studies Council and are used for residential scientific study. Indeed while I was there there were many students doing research by the pond. Needless to say I ignored the sign and took the photo anyway, which I hope most people do as it seems ridiculous to have the the most famous landmark in that area behind a private sign.

Flatford Mill

My day complete I went back to the Travellodge and then headed home the next day.

A Picture Postcard World

I was directed earlier this week by the always wonderful Katie Smith to the Time Shift programme on BBC 4 about postcards. Titled “The Picture Postcard world of Nigel Walmsley” it's a nice little jaunt though the history and uses of the postcard. Do forgive it's beginning and apparent grumpy old man character, it soon warms up and is filled with all sorts of nuggets of information, including some I didn't know.

Running the history of the postcard from it's heyday in 1902 to 1919 (ish), delving into the variety of cards available, talking about collecting, the resurgence of card usage in the 1960's to 1980's as well as a fair sprinkling of information about postcards as art, which is always something I enjoy (though I'll take mail art over Gilbert and George any day), it covers the social issues and changes throughout this century.

Also worth a look is the postcard blog from Daniel Weir which can only be described as a celebration of John Hinde and a huge nostalgia trip. Not only do I adore the aesthetic qualities in a John Hinde postcard but the subjects covered are hugely reminiscent and often downright exact to how I remember my summer holidays growing up and never stepping foot outside the UK.

http://wishingiwashere.wordpress.com/

It also finally forced me to start the process of archiving my own collection. But I'm not sure any of those will end up online for all to see. After a day of work I've scanned 60 and am currently trying to put those first 60 in a database.

Beats from the Jungle Drums

Exciting times!
I woke up this morning and checked the Jungle City website to see if my Orangutan Welcome to Jungle City Edinburgh had been moved from the Botanics to it's new home in the city. Expecting that they were being moved as predicted on the 6^th and having heard the day before that many of the sculptures were packing up and being relocated I was eager to reveal where he was now located.

I knew he had been getting a good response from the photographs that were appearing around the interwebs, as well as reports coming in from friends who went up for the Fringe. From what else I've seen, the project in general has been garnering a really good response. The Botanics apparently seeing a 77% increase in visitors from this time last year. Impressive considering the weather.

Well I do wish I was up there as his new location is confusing me a little. According to the map (which can be downloaded here) Welcome to Jungle City Edinburgh is no. 64 and is located at The Meadows which is a park to the south of the City Centre. However no.64 on the visual map seems to be located somewhere on George Street near the Assembly Rooms right in the shopping centre of Edinburgh. When I know where he actually is I will be tweeting about it, so if you don't already follow me on Twitter (or Facebook if you prefer) you should. ;)

Now my Orang has moved I can reveal a few more details. He has been sponsored by Eco Movers/Matt Purdie and Sons and apparently is on the Audio Guide! So if you have an iphone you can download this app which will lead you on a tour of the 50 or so animals out of the 130 that celebrities have leant their voices to. I don't have an iphone so I've yet to hear it.

Finally if he is on George Street he is really near to Harvey Nichols, which is where you can go to find the Jungle City pop up shop. If you want a mini version of the sculptures you can order one from there as well as The Art Book with a front cover with the lovely Loz Atkinson's hornbill One for the Rock, One for the Crow, One to Die, One to Grow on it (I thought mine was a long title). Mine is on page 67. The Art Book, T-Shirts and some plain coloured mini sculptures are currently available on their online shop.

Finally you should check out the Jungle City website, it's had a redesign with all this new information including pages for all their artists.

Welcome to Jungle City Edinburgh 2011

Back from the East - part 2

On the day I went to March (another of the 4) it was annoyingly grey and dull. I took a number of photos but the clouds showed no sign of breaking. March was interesting anyway with many fab buildings including a museum and a pub called the Ship Inn right by the canal. It also had a wrought iron and gaily painted memorial (I think for the queens silver jubilee) that was called the Fountain. It didn't seem very fountain like, until I found out that at some point the fountain bit that should sit in the middle of the structure had been sold many years ago to someone in a neighbouring village, and was currently sitting in their garden. 

 

March Museum

I also went to Whittlesey (the last of the 4 major fen towns) on the same day as March. The grey day didn't help all the grey stonework. But there were many interesting things to see, including the buttercross which is used as an undercover bus stop mostly, but still seems to be a hub of town activity. Also a pair of impressive churches and a pub by the canal called the Hero of Aliwal. After Whittlesey I trekked up to Thorney to check out the abbey, or rather the remains of it, which is mostly some buildings that are now private houses, the impressive church and a big and inaccessible field. After Thorney I took decided to go even further north and check out Crowland. It had started to rain so my day was looking less and less good for photos. This was until on the horizon I saw the monster that was ruined Crowland Abbey.

St Andrews Church, Whittlesey

I was really taken aback by Crowland Abbey, I was driving along and it suddenly loomed up and proceeded to play hide and seek with me behind trees and houses. It doesn't have the most delicate of profiles either, so it was quite a shock to appear so suddenly. It didn't even look ruined until I got to it, where you can see that part of the abbey has collapsed away. This has been a theme throughout the fens, the churches and cathedrals are some of the most ornate I've ever seen. Tiny villages have churches that date way back and far outstrip churches in my locality. 

Crowland Abbey

I went back to the B&B via a number of interestingly named farms, Gothic Hall Farm and Malice Farm. Other places I visited included; Welches Dam a RSPB reserve, Upwell, Outwell, Manae, Three Holes, Welney, Pymoor and Flag Fen, a Stone/Bronze Age reconstruction village.

Welches Dam RSPB reserve

All in all I had a lovely time. I can only praise Sean at Woodlands B&B in Witchford, near Ely for making my first stay in a B&B and first holiday on my own a good experience. I saw many new things, including a barn owl in the wild and many strange and interesting things. I really enjoyed being in a place where the countryside was only a stones throw away and where you often felt like the only person in the world. I also learnt how much I enjoyed just driving around, racing down empty roads, splashing puddles and getting mildly lost. I had hoped that it would sate my desire for the VW camper van and the idea of doing this on a much larger scale, in the end it only heightened it and after about 24 hours home with a good meal in me I wanted to be back out there.

Storm and sunshine

However home wasn't to be my destination for a few more days.....

Back from the East - part 1

Back from my holiday a few weeks now and it was quite an experience. I didn't get the best weather, but I think I made the most of the sunshine I had. What I did get was a similar experience to last years “Summer Holiday” to Southwold, which I was kind of expecting. The Fens are hardly a great distance from Southwold and they both share some pretty flat ground. I wasn't sure that that would have the same effect on the weather and as I'm no meteorologist, I'm still not. What I do know is that on more than one occasion, I had days where it was bright sunshine with immense black clouds on the horizon. To be honest it's probably the flatness of the land that does this more than anything else. I could see the weather coming, when my usual experience is of a place with more hills and a lot more trees.

Middle of nowhere

Having the fun of driving around the M25 and the M11, I got into the borders of the fens on Thursday lunchtime. Having been sunny all the morning, it clouded over by the time I got to my destination. It was in fact so sunny on the drive that I actually got unexpectedly burnt and developed a bit of a truckers tan. This I didn't see as a particularly good sign for my weeks weather. However it soon cleared up and I got lots of photographs of Ely.

Ely Cathedral

 Ely is pronounced Eelee, and named supposedly for the large quantities of eels that were once caught in the marshes around the town. Before the fens were drained, the area was mostly marshy and underwater land with a few drier islands of slightly higher ground where people lived. As such there are many depictions of eels around the town. While not one of the 4 Fenland major towns I was aiming to visit, it was very near to where my B&B accommodation was and has an amazing cathedral.

Ely eel sculpture

Wisbech (pronounced Wizbeech) is “The Capital of the Fens” and was an odd place to visit. I say odd because due to weather patterns I went on a Sunday to try to get this potential photo hotspot on a sunny day, and like many a Sunday in many a place it was dead quiet. It also meant that I stood out a lot as a tourist and got plenty of funny looks. However from an uninspiring wet and grey start, the sun came out and I got some really useful photos. Of all the tourist sights in Wisbech, the gardens of Peckover House (a NT property) were a real treat. Not only were they beautiful to look at but full of really interesting nooks and crannies, including; a cat cemetery, a tiny wooded hut with amazing stained glass windows and a Victorian Orangery. The abundance of flowers also meant there were lots of insects and I could indulge my passion for stalking butterflies. They also had a couple of honeybee hives, which were wonderfully busy if quite scary to try to get close to and take photos.

Tame Peacock butterflies at Peckover House

I visited Chatteris twice while I was away. The first time I got drenched within 5 mins of stepping out of my car. I got so wet that I just drove all the way back to the B&B to change and wait for the worst to pass. Luckily by about 3pm the rain seemed to be going away and this time, dressed in my waterproof trousers and still slightly squidgy leather jacket, I took another stab at it. By the time I got there however it was blue skies, sunshine and mid twenties temperature. Chatteris didn't seem much like your usual tourist destination even though it is one of the 4 major towns in the fens. It certainly had a small town air and I felt very out of place. However it has a gorgeous church and an interesting graveyard.

Broken Tomb in Chatteris church graveyard

Once the rain had stopped I also took a trip to Stonea Camp, which is a prehistoric camp that was at one point entirely razed for farmland. Its earthworks have since been rebuilt and was home to many grazing sheep when I got there. It also allowed some impressive views of the surrounding land and the rainstorms that were coming and going. Be warned, the road to the camp is one of the most challenging and scary I have been along. Basically single track with ditches either side, I wouldn't want to meet anything coming the other way. Much of it is not tarmaced and obviously has some heavy farm traffic moving along it. It also has some huge dips and bumps, a real adventure for my little VW polo and one that had me fearing for its underside and wishing I had a 4by4, although I was very proud of my car, managing it with no apparent issues.

Stonea Camp

Photos from my Flickr feed, more at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/noblueskies/sets/72157627135849157/

Part Two: More of the Fens.

Into the East

Plans are afoot!

At some point last year I found out that Flatford Mill where Constable famously painted his Haywain was mostly unchanged since Constable's time. As an artist that cites Constable and the Romantics as influences in my work (the very notion of the idyllic landscape influencing tourist memorabilia, including postcards) I was intrigued by this. The idea that this kind of place remaining unchanged seemed not only wonderful in modern Britain, that to my mind is losing much of it's heritage but also fitting to the romantics idea of celebrating the English landscape.

I decided that I wanted to recreate the Haywain and produce the same view in my own style. How exactly this will look remains to be seen but I did decide to go visit Flatford mill and see for myself.

This led to wondering how many more of the scenes in Constable's paintings have remained basically recognisable to this day. I found an amazing little map on the internet based on ordnance survey that shows not only the area of Dedham Vale with close ups of the key locations but also recommended walks to explore Constable country but also the location of where Constable stood to paint his pictures.

At the same time there are plans afoot to go to the Cambridgeshire fens region. What the reason for picking that region is I will reveal later when things are more fixed. I am however compiling a list of tourist hotspots that I should visit.

Since both areas are relatively close to each other I decided to split a week in both locations. On the 15^th July I will be off to Ely and staying a few days in a B & B there, taking visits to the surrounding countryside and towns. Doing my usual thing of exploration, buying postcards and getting tourist imagery and photographing anything and everything. I will then be off to Constable country staying in a Travellodge for a couple of days and exploring Constable Country using my exciting new map.