Inspired By Landscape II - The End? ...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Large scale drawings

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

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.