Space to breathe.

I find that living in this part of the UK has many benefits but sometimes it is wonderful to take a break and venture further out and into the wilds of our country, so in early August we took a break from our familiar surroundings to have a family holiday and headed North. Stopping at a few places on the way up, we were quickly surprised at the space available to us, both the physical environment and in our own head-space.

Image from  'Of House and Home' exhibition at YSP by Alice Pattullo.

Kent is undoubtedly a busy and in some areas, an overcrowded region of the UK. It is close to the continent and London, which makes it impossible to ignore or be unaware of the bigger picture of the world. This, at the present moment is quite an unsettling one, so it was great to get away.

We left early and watched the sun rise as we travelled up north, stopping regularly to both stretch our legs and find our bearings. One stop at Wakefield took us to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park where we and many others walked around the acres of beautiful countryside enjoying the wonderful sculptures, using them as landmarks to navigate the terrain. I had not seen Henry Moore sculptures outside a gallery space before but knew he had made them for this environment, not galleries or other domestic settings and so for me it was a revelation to see them at last in context.

YSP, Henry Moore galore!

James Turrell, an artist that I had researched whilst studying for my MA also had a piece of work in the park. He creates physical spaces that encourage observation of the sky. They are called Skyspaces and the one in Wakefield was one of two that we visited on our trip. Looking at the blurb for YSP it seems they also use it for many special events throughout the year, such as sound-bath meditation and sunrise and sunset observations. I will certainly plan a visit to incorporate this in the not too distant future.

Deer shelter Skyspace.

We all entered the Deershelter Skyspace quietly and once sat on the concrete benches that surround the inside of the chamber, we sat in silence and wonder at the simplicity of it all. Certainly space to breathe, with space to think and watch the clouds slowly scud across the view from the square aperture.

Entering the Kielder Skyspace.

The following week at Kielder Observatory we discovered another of his Skyspaces and entered with a more excited sense of what we thought we would discover. This time the aperture was circular and captured both the glow of the setting sun and the concentration of space directly above us.

Circular view.

Later that evening we saw the (almost) full moon through huge telescopes and were shown planets, stars and their constellations. We drank hot chocolate and wondered what we could see from the Skyspace now. Kielder Observatory is located in Europe’s largest expanse of dark sky, so even when the sun has one down there is plenty to see. So much to see in fact that you go giddy with it all.

Moon photo taken by my mobile phone via a telescope lens.

We ventured to Kelso in Scotland to see an extraordinary set of three art installations by Steve Messam, set in the grounds of Mellerstain House. These were inflatable structures that 'explore their sense of space, presence and place'. Again they acted as points to navigate to, encouraging exploration and discovery. The inflatable spheres on the ornamental lake certainly stayed with me as an image. I think they really summed up our holiday. A series of circular objects that encapsulated what we really needed; space to breathe.

Sculpture by Steve Messam.

I will be opening the doors of my beautiful straw bale studio once again this year to exhibit my own and Alison Lees work as part of the Canterbury Festival, the theme is still 'The Spirit of Place' as it is an ongoing art project based in Kent.

You can keep up to date with our explorations and discoveries by looking at www.facebook.com/EastKentSpiritOfPlace

Open times are 11-5 daily on the weekends from 14-29^th of October. We can be found at house number 25 on the Whitstable trail. Please see the webpage www.ekoh.org.uk for more information.

 I can be contacted on 07432679164 or clare@people-to-place.co.uk

Our place; in time, location and nature.

I need art. I think we all do. Art in its widest description: that is creative writing, film making, poetry, dance, performing arts and visual arts such as photography, painting and printing, land art, sculpture...the list could go on and does.

Peacock butterfly basking in last Octobers sunshine.

 With the horrors that have been in the news recently it can be difficult to know what to do, think or behave. But society has always had a place for art and if you have a think about other cultures and their perception of art, this could include the fascinating Wabi Sabi of Japan, delicately illuminated Celtic texts or the raw songwriting and performance art of Icelandic Bjork.

Dandelion clock covered in morning dew.

A sample of last years Artists Open studio work on display

But one way I have been keeping sane amongst the chaos over the last year has been to produce more art, attend more workshops and share my knowledge and skills with others. Art can allow you to be in the moment, to achieve something in the time given and encourage you to see a clearer, brighter picture of the world.

Last October I exhibited my artwork as part of the Canterbury Festivals', East Kent Open Houses trail. Lots of people came to view the work, with only one person this time asking if it was a hobby.(!)

I had many different types of artworks on display, from pewter casts to printing and painting as for the last year I had been working hard, in collaboration with another artist, Alison Lees on a project entitled 'Spirit of Place'. This had led us to explore more deeply the places in which we live in Kent.

Tiny feather underfoot.

Alison lives inland in a rural area with the undulating downs and ancient woodlands on her doorstep. In contrast I live on the coast, by the pebbly beach that is endlessly shaped and reshaped by the tides. The subtle changes in the seasons are less conspicuous here. I am possibly more likely to recognise the build up of tourists visiting the coast at certain bank holidays, than I am to notice the Seakale sprouting through the pebbles or see the first Swallows of the season.

Flint, Chestnut and leaf collection from a seasonal walk.

Creating a Cuttlefish mould for a Pewter cast.

Alison is surrounded by the endless physical changes that our agrarian calendar enforces onto nature as well as the consistent pattern of growth and decline that is nature itself. A walk up the path through the field opposite her home cannot be achieved without understanding exactly which season we are in and even what part of that season; asking ourselves questions like 'are the Skylarks rising yet?', a walk in the woods can indicate exactly the timing, speed and quantity of seasonal growth. As we walk we comment on the abundance of delicate little Wood Anemones, the deep violet blueness of the Bluebells, the birdsong and our amazement at the sheer force of nature that powers the plants up and through the deep leaf litter that covers the floor of the wood.

My exhibits included an 'Cabinet of Curiousity'

What I wanted to achieve in the October exhibition was a contrast of work, to show the difference of the places. I did this by consciously walking the land, picking up and collecting 'treasures' from the walks, which I used to create new artworks that allowed other people to share my insights and hopefully get them out there seeing with an artists eye and appreciating our place in time, location and nature.

A linocut print entitled 'Blue Coast'

I will be opening the doors of my beautiful straw bale studio once again this year to exhibit my own and Alison’s work as part of the Canterbury Festival, the theme is still 'The Spirit of Place' and is an ongoing art project based in Kent. You can keep up to date with our explorations and discoveries by looking at our facebook page

Open times are 11-5 daily on the weekends from 14-29^th of October. We can be found at house number 25 on the Whitstable trail. Please see the webpage www.ekoh.org.uk for more information.

 I can be contacted on 07432679164 or clare@people-to-place.co.uk

To Follow...a Path

To Follow (or not to follow) a Path

One of the workshops I teach is ’Way-finding and the Art of Psycho-geography’, I encourage participants to go out and find their own path: their own route to venture through the locality. This creates an opportunity for them to encounter the town in their own personal way. This may lead to discovering Whitstable for the first time or rediscovering it again on this course. I have developed a practice during my MA which can be taught and is based on a ‘derive’.

Taking a derive.

To take a ‘derive’ was one of the basic practices of the Situationists Movement..

‘The Situationists also believed that artistic intervention in the everyday environment could awaken people to their surroundings and lead to a transformation of society.’ Amy Dempsey, Styles, Schools and movements.

When exercising our imaginations we start to be curious and observe more.

I find it interesting when I ask people to go out for a short, 5 minutes or so, derive, they become concerned about why, where and how and whether wallets/bags should be taken. We so often take ourselves out on a walk to do something or perform a task such as to walk the dog, push the pram, get shopping etc that to ‘just walk’ becomes seen as a tricky instruction.

Saxon Shore Way walk, following the seawall at Seasalter.

Following existing paths, (such as our local ‘Saxon Shore Way’, a long distance path around the Kent coast) allow ‘the walk’ to become the destination in itself. It is a place to visit and explore, walking these long distance paths is acknowledged as a ‘verified’ leisure activity. To just walk, with no destination in mind can feel both anarchic and liberating yet could also be seen as an indulgent and wasteful pursuit of time.

Curiousity

I love to follow existing paths randomly and see where they go, Whitstable is a great town for exploring in this way as it is full of little quiet back lanes and old alleyways. One of these is often photographed by tourists as its name is ‘Squeezegut Alley’. As you may have guessed it is very narrow at one end and apparently used in times past by naughty children running away from a particular local ‘bobby’ who couldn’t chase them all the way through, as he didn’t fit!

A well used path to the sea at Seasalter.

A new book has just been published that I am looking forward to reading, it is called ‘Playing for Time- making art as if the world mattered.’ It was written by Lucy Neal and created in collaboration with other artists including Anne-Marie Culhane, who I met at the Eden Project back in February this year.

Rob Hopkins has highlighted this book and other similar works in his blog ‘Transition Culture’. The blog looks at the journey of the Transition movement which he initiated back in 2007, it’s well worth a look at if you are interested in a more sustainable and enjoyable approach to life.

An inviting pathway on the Welsh hills.

 Another recent blog of his published on the 27^th of April 2015 talks about Lucy’s book ‘Playing for Time’ and interviews two other authors and founders of similar work. There was a great quote about curiosity that I want to highlight.

‘Artists pick up on what’s happening in society from talking to people through an innate curiosity that we live with all the time.’ Sarah Woods

I have enjoyed developing my walking art practice and seeing how people can be encouraged to explore their locality for themselves. Curiosity awakens us up to new experiences and when tapping into this through creative imagination and expression I believe we can connect much more to our senses and therefore our surroundings.

Place

When we feel a sense of familiarity and ease with our surroundings, our local environment, we are far more likely to feel possessive of it, even protective. This was the title of my MA research paper; Place, Projection and Projection- How people connect to place.

Lichen on a footpath post in Wales.

Listening, yet again to Radio Four this morning I caught a wonderful programme with Phillip Glass the composer, explaining about creating an imaginative place with just his music. I know that music can take us back to specific times, events and places; he was talking about his music scores for films, operas and symphonies.

‘the music is the thought…a Buddist teacher, Rinpoche told me once that there is not just one universe, there are 3,000 universes, right away I asked him is one of these music? Yes he said, could I go there some day? Hopefully, he replied. When he told me that, 15 years ago I thought that he meant in some future reincarnation but perhaps he didn’t, perhaps he was thinking in this very life I would be in that world…’ Phillip Glass, Words Without Music

There would be a different soundtrack to both the coast and the hills.

I can see that if this imagination is exercised then we could discover many more layers to a place. Similar to a piece of music, perhaps a film score which has the power to transport us back to that memory of the film, plot, characters and the overall ambience of the place, we can create our own soundtrack. It may be the sound of our footsteps, the wind in the trees or any other site specific noise. When I think of areas that I know well and enjoy to walk in regularly, I can map their sounds in my mind even now as I sit writing. Perhaps walking these routes regularly has already created a sound map.

Loch Sunart, I believe this would produce an epic musical score.

I certainly have a sound map of The Street in Tankerton, this has a soundtrack of people and dogs on the prom, shingle crunching as I walk down the beach, wind whipping up as I walk out onto the Streets visible expanse, seagulls crying and in the distance other shore birds calling. As I reach the end of the Street I hear the waves as they converge, splish splashing together, the wind is always more ferocious out there and any distant noises from the shore are only intermittent, windblown and ghostly.

Next week I plan to take some video and still camera footage, over a number of days, on a few walks to create a library of images which I can use for the promotional film for my Kickstarter project. It will be very interesting to see if my imagination and reality itself can be layered together to produce a significant and unique soundtrack for the recording. I can at least try. It will be interesting to see what I discover about places that I think I know well from what appears on the soundtrack.