Monday 26 November 2018

edges and boundaries

I'm trying to resist rushing into my aa2a project at Derby University and have allowed myself until the turn of the year to sit with and consider my developing ideas. I've spent a number of enjoyable and chilly hours drawing and photographing hedgerows and pathways, and photographing stone walls to draw later. 

Today I visited Alison Uttley's birthplace for the third time, drawing and redrawing a pathway by the boundary of the farm, I spent time walking the hawthorn hedgerows and stone walls near the farm house. Drawing allows time to pause, think, to look, notice and understand these boundaries that inspire me. The notion of boundary is important within my evolving ideas, a physical barrier representing safety and respect.

 Overgrown hawthorn hedge near Bakewell

 Hedgerow near Bakewell

 Hedgerow drawings

 Stone wall boundary Castle Top Farm

 Wall and path boundary at castle Top Farm

Stone wall Castle Top Farm

Thursday 1 November 2018

lay of the land

My aa2a project is being conjured from the ether. I took the train from Matlock to Derby today to work in the university library. 

Now I know where author Alison Uttley was born I'm beginning to understand the lay of the land and where to look for a fleeting glimpse of the farmhouse rooftop from the train. I've read Our Village, Alison Uttley's Cromford and Country Hoard (bought in Scarthin Books) and the farm landscape is enlivened by her writing.

Today I took this photo and enjoy the blur, centred is the farmhouse, hunkered down, grounded, immovable.

art library joy

Felt so at home in Derby University library today, gathering and rediscovering my core and repeatedly visited art references. My dyslexia was fierce, looking up books made difficult by one minute being able to spell a word and the next unable... Got there in the end!

I carried off the Subversive Stitch and Louise Bourgeois An Unfolding Portrait. Its thrilling wandering an art library, thankful for the opportunity.