Wessex and Wilton

The woods above Wilton have many stories attached to them, and part of the reason that I have walked and cycled so much around these hills and tracks, is to gain a sense of this historic landscape, and my paintings and drawings, are part of this exploration 
 Without Wessex there would have been no England, and without Wilton there would have been no Wessex.
 In 871 the Vikings were hammering at the gateways of Wessex, the last Kingdom to succumb to the assault of the Northmen. There was an intense amount of activity in this year with battles named in Basing , Meretun, and Wilton. According to Cassells Battlefields of Britain and Ireland; Asser recorded that Wilton was on a hill south of the River Guilou ( or Wylye) and speculates that this might mean "The high ground between the Nadder and Wylye, along the continuation of the Roman road westwards from Old Sarum through Grovely Wood." all of this area is five minutes from where I live,and as I explore the paths and ancient earthworks, i think "A nation was lost and then forged here ", and I am thinking of the sacking of Wilton and the bargain which Alfred made , paying off the Vikings for long enough to repair his fortifications and eventually resist their advance. So though I am trying to record what I see before me , perhaps I am also hoping some sense of this significance is captured.
     

Into The Woods

A couple of paintings from sketches, I have been going up into the woods at Grovely, particularly atmospheric at this time of the year. I stood lost in sketching in the middle of the woods for about twenty minutes, then heard the cracking of twigs , and a large animal moving nearby, I never saw the creature, I assume it was a deer, but it brought me back into the moment, and sudden awareness of the smells and sounds of the forest .

Paintings from the sketches of cliffs

.. back in the studio and working in the evenings now, some first ideas using the cliff sketches..

Charcoal sketches of St Ives cliffs

We were walking past Porthmeor beach when we saw a man on the beach with two large canvases working in the morning sunlight with the tide far out. I went down to talk to him, and he explained that the canvases he had already painted in his studio, and he brought them out to get "something" from the landscape,he said so many things which I agreed with, about how the first painting gave him something to struggle against, and how he was avoiding "picture making", his bold and expressive work was showing all that week at the Crypt in town. His name was Paul Wadsworth, and he inspired me to try and be  more free with these studies of the cliffs, and I really like their mood, and energy, so thanks Paul...

St ives School of painting studies

These are from the Saturday session and I arrived ten minutes before the class to find the door at the top of the stairs locked, I knocked and the model opened the door in her dressing gown, it felt rather illicit and risque, until I entered a room crowded with ladies and a few men poised at their easels. Awkwardly I searched for a spot to stand, ad finally found a corner, my first pose was the model's back as she sat in a chair, and I wondered how I was going to get anything out of the view, then I realised the window looked out to the beach and the sea at Porthmeor beach, and so now I see the picture and hear the surf, and the seaside light coming into the room. The poses were longer than before, with a final 25 minute one, which is the model lying on her back. 

The intersection of a number of lines of influence at the grave of Alfred Wallis in Barnoon cemetery St Ives. If you ever wondered how we became so preoccupied with a subdued palette of greys, muted greens and blues, and the motif of naively rendered ships, lighthouses and harbours, then this tile covered grave contains the remains of the originator. "discovered" by Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood in the 1920s, he had taken up painting images of the life he recalled as a mariner and inshore fisherman, when his wife died. He painted in household paints on whatever he could find, making his work like objects or icons as much as paintings. The tiles were made by Bernard Leach, who along with Shoji Hamada set up the St Ives pottery in the 1920s, and kick-started the studio pottery industry, providing the model for the English vernacular style which thrives to this day, though to the dispassionate modern eye, studio pottery recalls a particular late sixties, seventies self sufficiency vibe. 
 I came looking for this grave, and was slightly disappointed when I found it, thinking it was small and rather grim, the tiles, sort of dun coloured, and reminding me of fire surrounds in 1930s terraced houses ( for good reason) , then I looked more closely at the story  depicted on the top, the tall slender lighthouse withstands huge breaking waves, and at the door at its base an old man with a stick ascends a set of stairs to seek shelter. The top of the lighthouse, where there should be a light, instead has a cross; as I read it this is Leach's depiction of Wallis finding respite after the storms of life, and his ascension to Heaven, though Leach himself was not a Christian but a follower of the Arabic Baha i faith.
 The grave overlooks Porthmeor beach and within sight are so many of Wallis's motifs, including the island and its chapel, the bay itself, and Godrevy lighthouse.
Balanced on the top of the grave was a sea shell, the outer surface with a Walis-like image of a ship and a lighthouse in black biro, and on the reverse "For Alfred Wallis " .   By the time I returned to take these photographs, it had gone, blown away by the wind coming off the sea.    

A sheet of figure studies

At the end of the session at the life drawing there is a 5,4,3,2,1 challenge , these being the number of minutes given to draw successive poses, and this is the result ...

Life drawing at the St Ives School of painting

Some life studies from the midweek St Ives session. It's always a pleasure to return here to the drop in classes, up the stairs to the studios, and a challenging set of 10 and 15 minute poses, run by Steve Dove, who always makes for a relaxed and friendly class.

Sky and sea watercolour studies

While the weather remains unsettled, I am looking out of the window and working at the table after breakfast