CATCHWATER

Inspired By Landscape II - The End? ...

2012-01-17T13:10:00.001Z

The exhibition at Cliffe Castle finished on Sunday and was deinstalled yesterday.

Watershed has dominated my life for the past 12 months and its sad to think my time on the project has come to an end. Its been a fascinating and exciting year. I've met and worked with lots of great people, visited even more reservoirs than usual and observed a whole new world of wild life.

Its all been lovely and special highlights include my tour around the interior of Leeming Reservoir Valve Tower, drawing in the calm haven of Machpelah Mill, seeing a curlew's nest with eggs on High Brown Knoll, photographing a Golden Plover on Wadsworth Moor, searching for the elusive Twite, all the glorious walks along the tops and splendid days out with the Outdoor Art Group. Thank you to all who have taken part or helped me to achieve my goal of encouraging more people to access and enjoy our upland environment of water and moor.

Artist/Photographer Simon Warner is taking over as Watershed Artist in Residence and I'm looking forward to connecting to his soon to be announced blog about the project. In the meantime here are a few last pictures of the display cases at Keighley including the black and white woodcut prints that were produced by students from Titus Salt School.

Winter Widdop Water

2011-12-31T16:56:00.000Z

I often wonder about the secret life of the high reservoirs at Widdop and Walshaw Dean during the dark, and especially in the long nights of winter. Sometimes moonlight, sometimes starlight but mostly deep, deep black. And no matter how many times I read it, nothing better expresses the strange cold life of Widdop than Ted Hughes poem of the same name:

Where there was nothing

Somebody put a frightened lake.

Where there was nothing

Stony Shoulders

Broadened to support it.

A wind from between the stars

Swam down to sniff at the trembling.

Trees, holding hands, eyes closed,

Acted at world.

Some heath-grass crept close, in fear.

Nothing else

Except when a gull blows through

A rip in the fabric

Out of nothingness into nothingness

Workshop At Cliffe Castle

2011-11-30T22:10:00.000Z

I'm off to Cliffe Castle tomorrow to deliver a workshop in the morning for the Responses to Art group. We'll be looking at the exhibition of my artwork and Char's writing and then doing some practical work.

I've decided to show the participants some unfinished work that's related to the Watershed Project - specifically on the theme of The Enfolding Landscape and the idea of revealing the hidden. I'm creating a series of mini booklets based on the Turkish Map Fold.

These are just some woodcut trial proofs for covers. When the booklet opens, a larger piece of printed paper unfolds to show the main image. I've still a lot to do but hope the group will enjoy seeing the thought processes and practical problem solving that will lead to the finished piece.

I've been told to expect up to 23 participants so will have my work cut out helping them all to get to grips with the folding scheme.

Towers of Silence

2011-10-09T23:55:00.000+01:00

Here I am in the big basement room at Machpelah Mill with the 3 towers just before I took them down for transporting to Cliffe Castle for the exhibition. I used the self-timer on my camera for this shot as I did want one photo of me with them in that space.

I absolutely loved working down at Machpelah, the atmosphere of the room was so benign, peaceful and conducive to intense concentration. The silence was very calming and I already miss being in that space now I've moved out and given the key back. The best thing was the quality of the light especially in the late afternoon when the sunlight spilled off the canal, through the windows and onto the walls. I've written about this in my other blog Tumbling Hills.

It was purely a happy coincidence that this aspect of the room related so well to my ideas about projecting video of moving reservoir water onto the valve towers for the exhibition.

Below are two of my favourite photos taken during the 5 week drawing process.

Work In Progress

2011-10-09T23:30:00.000+01:00

I didn't show any work in progress pictures here of the large-scale charcoal drawings I made for the Inspired By Landscape II exhibition, as I wanted them to be a surprise. So (hopefully) here's a little slideshow of one of towers coming into being. It really did feel like I was constructing every brick, but contrary to normal building procedures I was able to defy the laws of gravity and work down from the top!

OAG - More Pictures

2011-10-07T11:07:00.000+01:00

Geoff Mitchell took this great photo of the OAGers at the start of our day out when the temperature was still a bit on the cool side. And Lisa Bendel's shot has captured the sense of vast space within which the rocky outcrops and swirling grasses dominate.

The pylons are a prominent feature of this bit of moor and from an artist's point of view their complex shapes add interest.

Vicki certainly looks very cheery as she makes her lively pastel drawing.

You have to admire Harry's insouciant style when at lunch time he nonchalantly drew out the bottle of wine and 3 glass tumblers he'd been quietly lugging around! The afternoon took on a rosy glow all of a sudden.

The strong wind never abated and this photo of Sue trying to draw in it brings to mind the image of a ships figurehead or one of those winged Nikes.

Afterwards Sue sent me this fascinating contribution: Writing of his struggle across Blackstone Edge in 1724, Defoe said: "here, tho' it was but the middle of August, and in some places the harvest hardly got in we saw the mountain covered with snow; but we found the people had a way of mixing warm with cold together, for the store of good ale which flows plentifully in these mountainous parts of the country make up for all the inclemencies of the weather." Sue added, "our windy weather was not quite as bad as poor old Daniel but adventurous nonetheless! Pity we didn't sample the store of ale - though the wine was pretty good!"

Outdoor Art Group - Blackstone, Light Hazzles and Warland

2011-10-03T23:59:00.001+01:00

Nine members of the OAG experienced a marvellous outing on the tops today.

The trip was planned at very short notice in an attempt to capitalise on the tail end of the lovely weather. A moody morning looked less than promising as we waited for the 900 bus up Cragg Vale to Blackstone Edge, but it never felt cold and once we started walking the sun broke through and lit up the hills with a glorious amber light.

We followed a straightforward route along the Pennine Way, taking in 3 reservoirs - Blackstone, Light Hazzles and Warland - with 2 major stops for creative work. A very insistent, warm wind was our constant companion animating the water surface with darting ripples and fanning the long red grass into equally liquid movement.

Some of the group had never been up to these reservoirs before and enjoyed finding a new area to discover and discuss.

Exhibition at Cliffe Castle, Keighley

2011-09-27T12:01:00.000+01:00

The Inspired By Landscape Exhibition is now up and running at Cliffe Castle until 15th January 2012.

The opening on Saturday afternoon was well attended with lots of people coming over from Hebden Bridge, Bradford, Leeds, Harrogate and even Chester.

Until the doors opened on Saturday I'd not seen the complete installation with all the projections running and the lighting in place so it was a lovely surprise to see that everything worked well together. The giant charcoal drawings of the reservoir valve towers looked suitably dramatic on their individual walls overlaid with the projections of rippling reservoir water, with the blue light behind giving a feeling of space.

Big thanks are due to the very hard working team at Cliffe Castle, who really put the time in to ensure the large octagonal gallery was looking its best. Special thanks to Paul Mahoney for his technical wizardry with masking the projections so precisely and understanding the effect I wanted to achieve. Thanks also to Mark Wharton for filming the water with me.

Something about all the different lighting used in the show makes it strangely difficult to photograph. The projected water disappears if you use flash, but without it the ripples take on a reddish cast. On the above photo I've had to do a lot of Photoshoppery to make it more like the real thing and its still not right. I'll be going back with a tripod to have another go but to get the true picture you'll just have to go in person!

The exhibition starts tomorrow

2011-09-23T22:31:00.000+01:00

Well thats it, the artwork is all installed and everything is out of my hands now. Tomorrow, Saturday, sees the opening of the Inspired By Landscape II exhibition at Cliffe Castle, Keighley from 2 pm till 4pm.
Anyone reading this and in the area is very welcome to attend.

Here's a photo of the entrance to the edifice that is Cliffe Castle, I love the tower and wish it were possible to go up to the top floor where there must surely be the ghost of the mad woman in the attic, a sinister monk, giant moths, or at the very least a flock of blood-sucking bats?

Owing to a broken car, I'll be travelling over to Keighley on the scenic 500 bus again tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it as there'll be a merry throng of friends from Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd on the same trip. We just need a bit of sun to light up the glowing autumnal rushes along the moor road over to Oxenhope and illuminate Leeshaw and Leeming reservoirs as we pass. Because thats what my exhibition work is all about.

Surprise

2011-09-19T23:21:00.000+01:00

Not sure if it was the right decision to avoid showing any photos of the big drawings here until after the Exhibition Preview but I do so want their size and monumentalism to have maximum impact at the show. I like a surprise every once in a while and hope the people who've been following this blog and who are coming to Cliffe Castle on Saturday will feel it was worth the wait.

The drawings are being exhibited with an extra added element I haven't mentioned here at all. This is something completely new to me and involves equipment, other people's expertise and much that is beyond my immediate control so at this point I don't know for sure it will all come off. I believe the drawings are strong enough to stand on their own but really hope the other bit can happen because it should transform and animate the whole exhibition.

Big Paper

2011-09-19T22:45:00.000+01:00

Last Friday I went down to Machpelah Mill early, took down my 3 big drawings and rolled them up.
It took over 2 tense hours as I was working on my own and had to think through every move to avoid doing anything to damage the paper. The evening before I'd given them all a huge final spraying of fixative and the room still stank of chemicals.

It felt weird rolling up the drawings and making them disappear, they've been such a presence in the room over the past 5 weeks and it hardly seemed credible all that work could be reduced to this insignificant looking parcel with its lop sided masking tape carrying handles.

My friend and colleague Chris Herbert gave me a lift to Cliffe Castle in her camper van. The drawing roll travelled in style - luxuriating on the fully extended bed and arriving at the gallery in perfect condition.

The installation date had been put back until today, so this morning it was the Keighley bus for me, the 500 which goes up over Oxenhope Moor and via Haworth. The moor looked delightful in the early morning sun and it was good to reacquaint myself with the uplands after weeks of grafting indoors.

At Cliffe Castle not everything went to plan and although the big drawings are now up there's still a lot to do in a very short time. I've got to go back on Thursday to review things.

The other side

2011-09-16T22:42:00.000+01:00

Last week was taken up with an all out effort to finish the reverse side of my book 'Watershed Journey'.
Originally the book was conceived in terms of having a blank back side so to speak, or to be more honest I just hadn't really thought about the back.

The whole thing was an experiment, which might have gone wrong at any stage and in fact at one point I got stuck and had to cut off two pages! So it was a surprise to find myself using this work for the exhibition invite card.

Then we decided to display the book on a plinth, to be viewed from all sides, so I knew I had to continue the journey on the reverse. These photos show various stages in the making. Temporarily I blu tack the collage pieces into position, thus allowing for changes of mind as things go on. When I'm happy with the relationship between all the images I laboriously peel it all off page by page and glue permanently. Quite a fiddly process, and sometimes a page gets a last minute reorganisation.

I don't know how the stylistic aesthetic of 1950s textiles/wallpaper has crept in. My vision of the linear fields of rushes have just made it that way.

Eventually my studio space becomes a nightmare of heaps of ripped up paper which has to be searched through to find that elusive perfect little strip...

Inspired By Landscape II

2011-09-05T23:31:00.000+01:00

The invites to the exhibition preview have been printed and sent out. I'm very pleased with how its turned out. Originally I wanted the format of a pop-up map but this was not feasible and now I think the mini concertina is a better idea, as there's more room for my artwork.

Below is the email version of the invite. The only way I could capture this was with a screen grab so the links are not functional.

The Enfolding Landscape - Alternative view

2011-09-05T23:14:00.000+01:00

Arranged in a circle the book form becomes a whirlpool of energy. I vowed I'd never make another of these as it took so much time and effort, but I'm already thinking about where I could take it next.

The Enfolding Landscape - Double-sided flag book

2011-08-31T22:54:00.000+01:00

At last The Enfolding Landscape is finished. The photo doesn't do it justice, hopeless lighting, scruffy floor and no time to set up a nice shot but I guess the furniture gives a sense of scale.

At the Cliffe Castle exhibition it will stand on its own plinth with a perspex lid. I wanted it to be bare naked on the plinth but the curators think it will be too vulnerable because Cliffe Castle is visited by large numbers of young children.

Giant charcoal drawings

2011-08-24T22:28:00.002+01:00

I've finished the second of my 3 giant charcoal drawings and here's a couple of close-up photos to show texture detail. Can you guess what they are yet?

There's now less than 3 weeks before the work must be completed. I have to take all the exhibition work to Cliffe Castle, Keighley on 12th September so they can have 2 weeks to organise the hanging for the preview which is taking place on Saturday 24th September.

It all feels too scarily close, so tomorrow I'm straight on to starting the third drawing. The giant sheet of paper is already fixed up and ready to go.

My space at Brooklyn Studios in Hebden Bridge is too small for doing these drawings so Trevor Smith the owner of Machpelah Mill has very kindly agreed to let me use the large basement room there. The windows look out onto the canal and its very peaceful, which is just as well as I'm starting to feel the strain of my deadline...

Extended Flag Book

2011-08-18T08:31:00.000+01:00

I'm alternating days now between the giant drawings and the extended flag book. Yesterday I collated all the dried print sheets, folded the spine pieces and cut out all the 'flags', having devised a system for cutting multi sheets at a time (basically using a lot of bulldog clips!) I don't use a guillotine and prefer a long steel rule and a very sharp knife for greater accuracy. The day just flew past.

Couldn't bear to go home without doing a quick blu tack temporary assembly of the spines and a few of the flags to get an idea of how its going to work out. The book is so long the only place I can work on it is the hard concrete floor of the gallery at Brooklyn Studios. My knees and back are not very happy as you can imagine. For some reason this photo makes me think of salamanders or dragons. Salamanders, being amphibians, can live in water and on land so the association is quite apt as my book is all about the interconnection of land and water on the uplands.

Hung out to dry

2011-08-10T23:51:00.001+01:00

The print drying rack is almost full with A2 woodcuts of reservoir water, ready for cutting and folding.

Large scale drawings

2011-08-09T12:28:00.001+01:00

Ever since hearing that I'd been awarded the year 2 Watershed residency I knew I wanted to take the opportunity to stretch and challenge myself, especially when I realised how large the exhibition space is at Cliffe Castle. Consequently I'm having to think big.

I've started work on the largest drawings I've ever made. The paper dimensions are 5 ft wide by 8 ft tall for each drawing! Just finding a suitably large, empty wall space has been a challenge, not to mention fixing up a sheet of paper that size. Interestingly though, after a very short while it just seems normal and not a problem. I'm using charcoal. Its one of my all time favourite mediums and ideal for the purpose.

If all goes to plan I'm hoping the drawings will make a strong impact at the exhibition so I want them to be a bit of a surprise. All I will say here is that they are of structures connected with the water gathering system, so you may well guess what they are. Here's a couple of texture details.

The Enfolding Landscape - Bigger Book

2011-08-05T22:42:00.000+01:00

A while back I mentioned I wanted to make a longer, taller, double-sided version of the Enfolding Landscape book for the residency exhibition at Cliffe Castle. I started work on this over 2 weeks ago.

Three new A2 blocks needed to be cut, each 60 cm long and 42 cm tall, featuring the cotton grass and two versions of rippling water. The birch plywood blocks are considerably harder than the Japanese ply but I like the crisp lines you can get in this surface.

Anyway it was a mammoth cutting job with lots of areas that needed to be completely cleared and I had aching arms, wrists and fingers for days. In the photos you can see where I've painted the design onto the block as my guide for cutting. Sometimes you can't stop the gouge from carving deeper down into the layers than is necessary, so the block looks a bit rough, but none of that will show in the print.

I realised that I had seriously underestimated the number of prints I will need to pull. Including the covers and all the flag 'pages' I will have to ink up and print the A2 blocks 84 times!

On Monday and Tuesday I printed all the cotton grass ones on one side, using black ink. Here they are in the drying rack with part of the ornate converted mangle press peeping through behind. The oil-based ink I like best takes a few days to dry.

On Wednesday I started printing the water and today I wanted to complete that part so I've needed to work really hard to print 31 sides - all day, hour after hour, inking and printing. Its amazing how much ink you need to cover A2. I forgot my camera so can't show you but the print rack is full of lovely bluey grey sheets now.

On Monday if I can face it I'll print the reverse side of all 22 cotton grass pages. Then the printing will be over and it'll be long sessions of folding, cutting and gluing. At this stage its easy to lose sight of what you're trying to achieve, and to feel a bit overwhelmed by the drudgery but hopefully I'll have the stamina to get to the end.

Outdoor Art Group go to Widdop

2011-08-02T00:29:00.002+01:00

Photo by Geoff Mitchell

Here we are on Widdop Dam at the start of a wonderful Sunday of drawing, photography, poetry and sound recording for the inaugural trip of the newly formed Outdoor Art Group.

The heroic 906 bus brought us up from Hebden Bridge on a switchback ride through Heptonstall and Slack, along the tops and round a couple of hairpin bends, to get us in the mood for shaking off any preconceived ideas about a sedate Sunday stroll.

Soon enough we were bounding down the rushy north bank, organising base camp under the trees and setting to with cameras, pencils and the occasional quill pen made on the spot from moulted feathers the Canada geese had kindly left for us.

As you can see at the end of our lovely day we were all none the worse for our adventures, despite the odd tumble and a mud paddling incident about which I will remain silent! The 906 provided a reliable though bouncy return trip back to civilisation.

The beautiful Widdop landscape inspired a whole array of delightful images and thoughtful poems from the group and to see a slideshow of their work please click here. This is a special page devoted to the activities of the group, with information about the next trip when this is available and contact details if you'd like to get involved.

Watershed Journey - more pages from the book

2011-07-24T13:41:00.000+01:00

Woodcuts of Widdop

2011-07-20T13:09:00.003+01:00

Here's a slideshow I've put together of a brilliant day at Cliffe Castle Museum yesterday with the art students from Titus Salt School making woodcuts based on their drawings from last week's trip to wild, windy Widdop.

Despite never having done anything like it before, the students quickly grasped the idea and ran away with it. After getting their heads round the need for reversing the image and thinking in negative/positive, it was heads down for some solid concentrated gouging. Then the really fun bit, when the ink goes on for the first time and the image is revealed.

The resulting prints are fantastic and perfectly capture the mood of our day at Widdop, so well done all!

Watershed Journey

2011-07-18T23:25:00.000+01:00

Since the beginning of April I've been working on a concertina book called Watershed Journey. Its one of those works that for one reason or another is taking a long time to complete. There have been times when I've felt stuck and I had to cut 2 pages off after spending a week trying to make them right.

I'm using collaged prints, a combination of Woodcut, monoprint and engraved surface print. The original plan was to make use of a large collection of offcuts and oddments from previous printing sessions but in the end I've had to make some specific prints and so the offcut pile is growing and changing.

So far I've done 12 pages but now I've realised I need to work on the reverse side of the concertina so the book can be displayed standing up and be viewed from both sides. And so the journey goes on.
These pages are from the start where the emphasis is on winter colours and textures up on the high moor.

Studio work in progress

2011-07-16T18:58:00.000+01:00

This is a selection of Watershed images I've got up on my studio wall for inspiration, mainly photographs with a couple of quick sketches and a cyanotype of Widdop water.

I'm still looking for a solution to the problem of how to convey a sense of the conduits winding across the moors. I guess I may have to settle for the Enfolding Landscape sculptural book representing both the reservoirs and the conduits. See post dated 10th June for photos of the artwork.

I've got so many ideas for work celebrating this landscape but time seems to be running out as everything must be completed by the beginning of September for the exhibition at Cliffe Castle. The main thing about the space at Cliffe Castle is that its huge and anything small will be lost.

I'm going to remake the Enfolding Landscape book - it will be twice as long and twice as tall, and be double sided with printing on both sides of the paper so there's no blank areas. This means it can be displayed on a low plinth and be viewed from any angle. I'll have to cut new, larger blocks and print about 30 sheets of A2 on both sides; so a major undertaking. I do feel slightly daunted by the physical effort required but know it'll be worth it if I succeed. I'm really excited by this new development in my work, the 3D print, getting away from flatness.

Another area of experiment continues to be using the router for engraved marks on paper as I love the tactile result. Here's a kind of sampler page from my sketchbook:

I'm wondering if I can include this kind of mark making in an extended flag book, either instead of woodcut printing or alongside it. I'm not sure I can achieve this in time for the September exhibition as I've already set myself another huge goal that I've not even mentioned here yet!

Technically speaking I'm Watershed artist in residence from April 2011 until April 2012, and it seems strange to have the exhibition this early on. I'll carry on producing work long after the exhibition goes up at Cliffe Castle.

Drawing workshop at Widdop

2011-07-14T22:44:00.000+01:00

Had a great time at Widdop Reservoir on Tuesday with the art students from Titus Salt school. They worked really hard and seemed to quite enjoy it. The grandeur of the setting at Widdop is very inspirational I think.

It was pretty windy when we set up on the dam, so difficult for doing A1 charcoal drawings with no easels or boards, hunkered down on the ground. Thank goodness for the plastic sheets I brought, and the enthusiasm of the students. I was impressed by their willingness to have a go, making large drawings of the lichen and plant life that grows on the dam wall. Staff member Heather Graham also joined in.

I loved this drawing of just the outer edge of the lichen, a great use of the smudged line, and an ideal way of using charcoal for interesting effects.

The huge rock face above the reservoir was looking especially fantastic, all purple and green and dramatic. The local sheep took an active interest in the drawing activities.

After lunch the weather had gone off a bit so we moved round to a more sheltered spot on the north side of the res where masses of lovely foxgloves are in full bloom just now.

Next week we're transcribing the drawings into woodcuts at Cliffe Castle and I can't wait to see what comes out. The students always manage to surprise with their unusual ideas and inventive approach so it should be a good day.

More photos from Leeming Valve Tower

2011-07-13T10:03:00.001+01:00

Its all about sharp angles and circles in this series of photos documenting my tour of the valve tower at Leeming Reservoir near Oxenhope.

Water - it seems so simple when you drink a glass of it without even thinking about the complex systems we've devised to get it there, uncontaminated and clear. The giant rivets on the outflow pipe are a reminder of the powerful forces of nature we seek to control.

Inside Leeming Valve Tower

2011-07-11T23:11:00.000+01:00

At last, after years of curiosity, I finally get to see the view looking out from inside a reservoir tower. And what a surprise to discover that inside not only is there no giant plug on a chain, there's nothing much at all, except a large scary pipe under the grating that leads down to the water and ultimately underneath the reservoir to the outlet further down the valley.

I went to Leeming with Anna and Gavin from Pennine Prospects and we joined John the very pleasant and informative engineer for a mini tour of the doings. I'll post more pictures soon but now need to concentrate on tomorrow's creative field trip to Widdop reservoir with the Titus Salt art students.

Low water

2011-07-10T18:08:00.000+01:00

I've been on a recce to Widdop Reservoir in preparation for taking a group of A level students from Titus Salt School on a creative field trip there soon.

Despite the ferocious downpours we've had recently the reservoir is lower than I've seen it for ages.
So here's a view you'd never normally be able to take as you'd be well under water.

A few minutes after taking this photo the ground suddenly gave way and we sank up to our knees in cold peaty mud, so venturing onto the shore is not something I'd recommend. For a moment I thought we were going to disappear into the Grimpen Mire, it was scary.

All sorts of interesting textures and colours have been revealed by the retreating water, big sheets of golden red stone and lumps of disintegrating wood.

The lichens on the dam wall still look amazing but the micro landscape of moss I photographed much earlier in the year has mostly been dessicated. This is what it looked like in late January:

Now the little green pincushions are mostly shrivelled. Its strange to be surrounded by all these signs of dryness, whilst struggling to keep my camera out of the rain and getting soaked by walking through damp ferns and rushes. There's just no predicting whats in store from one week to the next.

Leeming Reservoir Valve Tower

2011-07-09T00:23:00.000+01:00

For such a long time I've been curious about the valve towers on many of the reservoirs in the Watershed Landscape area. They come in lots of different styles, some like cute little bandstands or gazebos such as this one at Leeming Reservoir and others like castles, chapels, watchtowers and prisons.

I always wondered what criteria governed their design aesthetics - what was the motivation for making them ornate or not and what exactly are they there for. I guess their function is something to do with controlling the water outflow and I like to imagine maybe a giant sink plug inside or some kind of Heath Robinson whirring mechanism.

Of course the enticing little bridges that connect them to the shore are strictly out of bounds, with locks and bolts and razor wire to keep you out. Being forbidden only serves to make them more appealing to me and I really want to see whats inside!

All being well I'll get my wish on Monday when I've got permission from Yorkshire Water to accompany an engineer over the water into Leeming. I feel childishly excited at the prospect and hope for kindly weather and a co-operative camera.

Interconnections

2011-06-28T00:01:00.000+01:00

Down here in the dark is the perfectly formed nest of a skylark with 5 brown eggs, each a tiny universe full of potential.

And down here amongst the grasses is a tiny pool of water reflecting the boundless blue sky where the future larks will blaze with feverish energy.

The interconnections between all things are revealed and reiterated within the enfolding landscape.

Cotton Grass

2011-06-27T22:29:00.000+01:00

The fabulous walks along the tops I took in early June coincided with the cotton grass in full swing. I love cotton grass and this year its been especially luxuriant. All along the conduits the little nodding white heads bow down to admire their own reflection in the water below - wonderful.

The Enfolding Landscape

2011-06-10T23:52:00.002+01:00

I've been busy experimenting with a new piece of work - a kind of sculptural book form. Its difficult to photograph well as its quite dark in the studio and the piece extends to over 8 feet when its open. It folds down to about an inch thick when its closed.

For quite a while I've been having this idea about what I call the 'Enfolding Landscape' - that when we journey up to the moors and reservoirs we are enfolded within the landscape as it surrounds us and we become part of it. This artwork takes that idea and relates it to the way the land and the water are enmeshed together. The starting point is two woodcut prints, one of cotton grass and the other Widdop water. I'm not totally happy with the outcome as the cotton grass feels too heavy and black, but its a good starting point for further experimentation with printmaking into 3D.

Green

2011-06-07T22:57:00.000+01:00

In my mind the colours most commonly associated with the high moor and the reservoirs are blue, grey, black and gold but every now and then there's a jolt of bright green.

Grass regenerating after fire on Ovenden Moor - I love the way it looks like spreading green flames.

Part of an unbelievably extensive patch of moss on the way to Green Withens appropriately enough. The wildly undulating contours mirror the rippling surface of that reservoir.

A seemingly delicate fern growing through the bare, stony bank of Light Hazzles Reservoir.

Horsetail growing in profusion at the far end of Leeming Reservoir, looking like prehistoric palm trees and indeed a 'living fossil'.

The sawn stump of a fallen tree at Gorpley Clough refuses to die and sends out masses of new growth.

A clump of Cotton Grass growing in a tiny pool on Oxenhope moor shivers in the wind and looks like some kind of furry sloth.

The sound of light

2011-06-04T08:33:00.003+01:00

A late afternoon of transcendent beauty yesterday in Calderdale inspired me to catch the 500 Keighley bus up onto the moor above Crimsworth Dean. If you get off at the turning circle, the Limers Gate path takes you even higher up into the domain of the elusive Curlews and Skylarks. I brought my sketchbook and paints for a very rapid impression of the view with three distant Reservoirs, Widdop on the right and the two Gorples to the left. The Gorples in particular were pouring out light in a way that was difficult to photograph, the sketch gives a truer impression of the contrasting gleam against dark hills.

Having borrowed Pennine Prospect's digital recorder, I had the chance to try to record some moorland birds. Once you tuned in, there was so much going on, the Lark song was as intense and sustained as the Gorple beams. If you could record the sound of light rays, I think that's what it would be like - a Lark singing.

The Curlews and Golden Plovers were more distant and mournful, and overlaying all that was the chattering of the Pipits. However, even though it was such a calm afternoon, the restless wind was always swirling through, so I'm not sure how well my recording will turn out. I did have a quick listen last night and there was a kind of magic in hearing larks in the kitchen.

Puddles small and large

2011-05-24T23:27:00.001+01:00

No Shortage of water on the moors now! The steady rain has replenished every rock pool.

And all that water is channelling downhill. This distant view of the Gorples reveals how the larger landscape is just the micro environment on a different scale.

I never noticed before how much higher Upper Gorple is. When you walk along the dam on lower Gorple you don't really get a sense of all that contained water above. The two dark pimples on the dams are of course the valve towers.

Printed textures

2011-05-12T09:27:00.066+01:00

My studio space is filling up as I experiment with different printmaking processes to best convey the feel of the watery expanses and flickering grass. The longer you spend on the tops, the more your eye becomes attuned to the nuances of the changing seasons and the effects of light. The other day up there I got caught in a sudden, heavy shower that swept in from the south east. I could see it coming, a misty blurriness I thought was smoke at first... by the time I'd got the camera in its raincoat and started legging it down the hill I was soaked. That kind of rain is fun if you don't get cold and its great to see some refreshment coming to our parched moors.

Black and Gold

2011-05-11T10:12:00.001+01:00

I've been away in the wetlands of North Norfolk - a delightful contrast with our uplands, yet many subtle correspondences and similarities of colour and texture in the landscape. The news of further fires on Calderdale's moors has been a worry and as soon as I got back I had to rush up to High Brown Knoll to check the area around the curlew's nest. As soon as I started up the hill there was a very strong smell of burnt moor so it was a relief to find no signs of fire nearby. Of course I know that many other nests of curlews, twites, larks and plovers will have been destroyed on Ovenden Moor and Blackstone Edge which is very upsetting.

I'm sure that many people think the moors are bleak and deserted places but there's a whole mysterious, secret world of life up there if you really look and listen. A pair of golden plovers were pottering around in the newly sprung cotton grass. They are very beautiful and incredibly well camouflaged for this environment. This is the only (partially) successful photo I could manage with the very heavy long lens.

I think this must be Mrs Plover as the male has more black on his belly. In Norfolk I saw a grey plover on the beach, equally gorgeous but in a silver, white and black colourway. Listen to the sound of the golden plover here.

An Easter Curlew

2011-04-26T10:06:00.000+01:00

Uninterrupted wandering through the Watershed lands during this spell of lovely Easter weather has provided some marvellous sights and sounds and none more magical than this Curlew's nest on the high moor.

We briefly lost the faint path when suddenly a curlew rocketed away, skimming low. My eagle eyed and informed companion spotted the eggs so I snatched this quick shot with a telephoto lens before quietly retreating and leaving the area rapidly to allow the parent back as soon as possible. We decided to take a different path on our return leg of the walk to ensure the bird was left in peace and were rewarded by the sound of a golden plover nearby.

This just shows how vulnerable ground nesting birds are and why its important to keep to the paths at this time of year. Its so sad to hear today's news of fires on the nearby Ovenden and Rishwoth moors. You can really notice how dry everything is on the uplands right now.

The high moors wouldn't be the same without their unmistakeable soundtrack of bubbling curlew song, impossible to describe but never forgotten once heard. Listen to it here.

Engraving on paper

2011-04-19T11:22:00.001+01:00

Many plants in the meadows alongside the edge of the moor are bursting into life now, yet these brambles are still dominated by last years old scratchy growth. Their prickly tangles make me think of the impenetrable domains of fairytale.

I enjoy drawing with my cordless engraver. The tip rips into the paper (like a thorn in skin) and it takes a bit of getting used to, but I love the lines that result, they have an affinity with the fuzzy monoprint line.

Another exciting feature is that the engraved marks are especially absorbent so any applied paint comes out darker than the smooth paper surrounding them.

In this close up its hard to distinguish between the cast shadows of the brambles and my drawing inspired by them.

My Watershed Landscape

2011-04-13T08:41:00.015+01:00

I never imagined I'd ever call myself a reservoir nerd, but yesterday found myself using exactly that term when discussing plans for this project. For many years I've been walking in the South Pennines and have always been drawn to the reservoirs up on the moors. There's something about these large bodies of water, they have a strange haunting quality connected with their isolation, and a magical way of intensifying light whether completely still and crystalline or dancing in the wind.

Blackstone Edge Reservoir

Feeding the reservoirs are a complicated system of drains and conduits - the catchwaters - constructed channels or mini canals that silently run for miles and miles around the tops, carrying the reflections of sky and clouds along with them, conducting light as well as water. You can walk along them mesmerised and letting your thoughts slide away over their long mirrored surfaces.

Rishworth Drain

And adding intrigue to the mix are the odd little reservoir towers, all different but basically the same, so tempting me to try my own version of a Bernd and Hilla Becher photographic work. The Bechers were German artists who systematically recorded industrial architecture such as blast furnaces, water towers and pit heads, presenting them in a grid structure in black and white that looks great.

Piethorne Valley

Leeshaw Reservoir

The official Watershed Landscape straddles the Yorkshire/Lancashire border stretching all the way from Marsden Moor in the south to Ilkley Moor in the north and takes in a whole swathe of reservoirs, some of which I'd never heard of. I hope to visit them all over the next few months and made a great start last weekend when I walked to Green Withens for the first time.

What I do

2011-04-08T23:16:00.113+01:00

My specialist area is printmaking and I have worked in all the major processes - etching, screenprinting, lithography and relief printing. For the past few years I've been concentrating on making woodcuts.
Alongside the printmaking, I find that drawing and photography are central to my practice. As you can imagine paper is a material I love using and I know quite a lot about it.

Increasingly I like to make Artist's Books where I design and create the book structure as well as the content. I particularly enjoy working with the concertina format because you can stretch it out and see all the pages at the same time or stand it up to make a sculptural object. A concertina book is great for telling the story of a journey, the sights, sounds and experiences along the way, so will be an ideal medium for conveying my ideas about the Watershed landscape as I go on my long walks between the reservoirs.

At this early stage in the residency I'm not entirely sure what I will be producing for the exhibition at Cliffe Castle with writer Char in September, but I know that hand-made unique books will feature. My main aim at the beginning is a blitz of experimention with materials, in my studio and more importantly, out in the landscape.

Here's a mini book I made a while ago called 'Tumbling'. The artwork originated in a series of woodcut prints that have subsequently been layered digitally. The 'story' is simply the idea of being up on the moor on a late summer's afternoon and rolling down hill through the long blonde grass.

Inspired by Landscape - The Watershed Project

2011-04-01T11:29:00.004+01:00

The official start of the Year 2 residency and highly appropriate that its April 1st since the trope of the Fool as an innocent vagabond associated with wilderness, new beginnings and the joy of discovery makes an interesting jumping off point for me and fits in with the approach I aim to take during the project.

I'm following on from Year 1 resident artist Sally Barker and author Char March will be taking on the role of resident writer from poet Andrew McMillan. Sculptor Sally has done some fantastic work with her photo montages so do take a look at her blog via the link on the right.

Inspired by Landscape is a 3 year project initiated by Pennine Prospects, a regeneration organisation, providing 3 artists and 2 writers with 40 day residencies to develop their own work and to encourage others to explore and enjoy the uplands of the South Pennines.