Another Boat Friday

Another slow walk home from work along the Thames towpath, taking photos of the boats. This time I ventured a little further coming out opposite the boatyard. So many people on their houseboats, sitting on the benches and grass alongside basking in the sun  that too inhibited to draw ( and as the walk was impromptu, not much  sketching gear anyway). On the way back at St Pauls Church there was a display of application plans to expand the Kew Bridge development  - left my comments as a pedestrian and cyclist who goes past it every day.Opening up access should be a good thing although I hope it doesn't change the character of the place too much.

Old Boats

Taking photos of my older work (both quilts and paintings) I borrowed back this piece from Sue based on boats at Pinmill . It dates from 1999, the watercolour it was based on from 1997 (painted on a course with John Tookey at Flatford Mill - I also bought one of his paintings! ) . Still looks good to me - like Elizabeth Barton I sometimes question how much I've improved since!

This print of a boat,based on a sketch  at Topsham (Devon), is even earlier from 1985 when I went on a stone lithography printing course near Ulverston . I loved the process and the results but not something you can do at home!!!
Reviewing these and other older works I  have a renewed appreciation of my drawing skills which seem to have lapsed - I used to go on several painting courses a year and the benefit of continued practice shows.

I've also renewed my interest in old boats with my daily walk into work along the river Thames near Kew Bridge - I take  lots of photos of these houseboats and barges  with  water at different heights according to the tides. I really must take my sketchbook out.

Yesterday I found treasure along the towpath - this piece of wood with flaking paint which I've placed with  other 'finds' in the conservatory.  Just asking to be incorporated into an art work or at least a source of inspiration. My work colleagues were singularly unimpressed when I walked into the lab brandishing my trophy but were too polite to say so.

The view from my office (almost!)

The diseased trees in front of the building where I work have been cut down so now there is nothing between us and the cars in the Ferry Lane car park but a shallow fenced moat!Makes us feel a bit exposed - was startled by friends waving at me from the car park while unlocking my bike to go home! However it does have its compensations - apart from much more light , we can now see to the other side of the river. While consulting scientific journals in the upstairs office, I've watched fascinated as the boats appear and disappear with the tides and the patterns in the mudbanks change.

I particularly like the rusting metal and shapes in this old hulk, a different view from the one observed from the other bank at the Watermans

I can see me sneaking out at lunchtimes with a sketchbook and a pair of binoculars (this was the highest magnification I could get with my camera ) , looking shifty on the towpath!

Low Water

Would you believe that this is the Thames?! At Brentford, the river has islands ('Aits') in the middle and as the tide changes the main part flows down the Kew bank. This is the same spot where Ian and I had lunch at the Watermans a few weeks ago watching the tide change but I never imagine the water level could be quite so low, it looks like someone's pulled the plug out!

I loved the patterns in the mud and gravel - I'll have to look at the tide charts to see when I might get an opportunity to sketch

Richard Long-Heaven and Earth

In between the Chunghie Lee masterclass and my main visit to FoQ, I had a day off to recover(!) which I jam- packed with shopping, coffee with Sue and a visit to Tate Britain ( an easy trip by train from Brentford to Vauxhall). The object of my visit was the Richard Long exhibition.

It stirred me in many ways and will I think leave a lasting impression. It's first effect was to colour my view of the Festival of Quilts - many pieces seemed so fussy in comparison until I acclimatised. Like Olga, I had seen his work in galleries and exhibitions before, and liked it but its hadn't made much impact on me. This time, being surrounded by it, in a large spacious setting with detailed explanations was quite a different experience, sometimes unexpected. The photographs, drawings , sculptures and textworks were interesting and often beautiful in themselves in addition to representing in varied ways the act of walking. But as I was going round I realised I was thinking as much about my own interaction with landscape and interpretation of it, relating his work to my own experiences. In Room 3, mainly wonderfully grainy photos of walks and 'interventions' in the landscape, he talked of ' making a circle of stones, just placing a stone at every mile, or carrying a stone from one place to another' . This made me think of the World Beach Project and the fun Ian and I had last year in Greece, making us look at a familiar landscape in a different way.

Room 4 contained large 'indoor' sculptures of stones-
"I like the fact that every stone is different, one from another, in the same way all fingerprints, or snowflakes (or places) are unique, so no two circles can be alike. In the landscape works, the stones are of the place and remain there. With an indoor sculpture there is a different working rationale. The work is usually first made to fit its first venue in terms of scale, but it is not site-specific; the work is autonomous in that it can be re-made in another space and place. When this happens, there is a specific written procedure to follow. The selection of the stones is usually random; also individual stones will be in different places within the work each time. Nevertheless, it is the 'same' work whenever it is re-made."

My favouites here were the Norfolk Flint Circle which made me think of the flint pebbles at Bexhill (above) and 'Slate Line' which put in me mind of the limestone pavement at Malham (below). These had very different properties - white and knobbly versus sleek grey shards but both had interesting things going on in the negative shapes between the pieces. The idea for 'Transference' in room 5 was "first making a walk on Dartmoor recording various things. Then later on a completely different walk in Japan, I deliberately looked out for and could find certain things that were the same as on Dartmoor. It is about a symmetry of places, or events, on different sides of the world, and universal phenomena"

That it something I could relate to. I've been to many nature reserves in UK and Europe as part of my job but when I visited this 'swamp' reserve on Mt Chokai in Japan, it felt both familiar and alien. I could recognise that some plants were orchids but frustratingly couldn't name them ( the guide book had no latin names - so much for it being the universal taxonomic language) Food and meals feature in his 'transference'. I'd taken my normal walking snack of Duchy Original cheese nibbles with me to Japan , but I never anticipated eating them with chopsticks during a picnic in a carpark!

Since moving to Brentford, I've been much more aware of the tidal nature of the river Thames - from mud to high water in just a few hours. Tides were the focus of room 6 where I spent most time, mesmerised by the huge painting 'White Water Line' . "......White Water Line demonstrates different types of energy. It uses china clay from the big clay pits near St Austell in Cornwall. This work represents the force of my hand speed, and the forces of water, chance and gravity. I make the top line of the image and nature makes the rest, revealing the cosmic variety of the microscale."

I loved seeing the mark of the maker in this and the other'mud' paintings.

The 'dribbles' reminded me of Osterley Weir which was a focus of our canalside walks at Xmas and New Year

I did several journal quilts and paintings exploring this subject earlier in the year and even pieced a quilt top which I put aside to work on my FoQ entry. Time to return to working on this piece I think. Not sure I'll use mud though!

Snow in Brentford

Snow always catches us unaware in the UK ( especially in London) - there's always the outcry of services grinding to a halt under winter conditions that for most of Northern Europe and America is normal. But then it happens so rarely that there would be bitter complaints about investments in snow ploughs that are only used every 10 years! With such infrequent snow, when it does arrive it tends to bring back memories of previous occasions - like when I was at University , walking into college then stupidly giving blood and passing out or wheeling my bike home from work in a blizzard , a journey of 2 hours!
Pleasanter memories are of taking pictures of the snow settling on the trees at the back of my previous property. It formed the basis of my first experiments using Photoshop to manipulate the images and my very first Journal Quilt in January 2003! I used the ideas to make a larger piece ( detail above) which it is hung in our dining room. I like the restricted , restrained palette.
Snow on trees still fascinates me and I 've taken lots more photos I ventured out on a shopping expedition to the High Street , well bundled up in my waterproof and walking boots with trekking pole. The gaiters were a bit of a struggle to get into as I don't use them very often - purchased after a snowy walking holiday in the Troodos Mountains in Cyprus when I got fed up of snow getting into my boots. Worth it tho'!
I took my camera and went on a slight detour down by the canal and dock( seen here in warmer times ) - there's one of the last working boatyards along this stretch of river, repairing canal boats and barges.

Our next door neighbour Myra gave us a Xmas card with a very similar view - where the Grand Union Canal joins the Thames (in the distance on the far bank is Kew Palace).

Grand Union meets Thames

Boatyard at Brentford

Cranes

Thames looking East

The Grand Union Canal meets the Thames

This weekend was the first visit of Ian's parents to view our new house. Besides admiring the space and light in the property we also explored the area along the canal. Ian had done a reccie in the morning while at the launderette and had discovered a road down to the Thames from the High Street .'Dock Road' leads past some locks and one of the few surviving boatyards down to where the Grand Union Canal meets the Thames. It's great that Brentford still retains some of its original history and function as waterside town despite all the development going on although I understand that the boatyard was under threat. As the area is tidal, its excellent for wildlife too - there were masses of birds on the mud flats.

The combination of brightly coloured industrial site, boats and tranquil waters is irresistible - I'll be back with my sketchbook! Ian felt rather proud of his discovery, knowing I'd like it, and rightly so.