Making marks… with words
Making marks scribing the turns and tumbles
Etching the rock edges inking the dark water
A finger of muddied water describes a hill line
A dark slash for the sky.. clouds poured from cupped hands
The point of a twig scratches grass gorse and heather
Light and dark drawn from ash and stone
As shadows from trees in summer
Casting liquid motion on the ground
Hundreds of little suns light the grass
Each leaf gap a lens
Painting the river
The primary media of this body of work is the painting. Its what I have done for the past fifteen years and though other things now crowd in, its still the part of my work that gives the greatest satisfaction. It also gives the greatest anguish for some reason. There is something very stressful with painting, that making music or writing (or almost anything else) somehow avoids. A bad day painting is the end of the world, but a bad day recording a track somehow carries less weight.
Here is a successful painting, for me anyway… I do like painting into the sun, the light almost of more interest that the landscape. Its why I like to paint water, as it allows you to get more light into the work… two sky’s but with a bit more going on in the water.
Sundown at Fairy Bridge. Oil on canvas 90x90cm.
Poem fragment
Another section from the long-form poem ‘Life Of A River‘ I’ve yet to fully edit it, but these snippets give a feel for the work in progress.
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.
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In this waiting room of the seasons
Between winter and spring
Before the life spark is re-kindled
Igniting the earth
The land barely breaths…
The airs motion quieting
As the darkening blue
Cups and holds
And stills to nothing
The most fragile stem
The finest weave of the land…
Taken in tender hands
The cold binds the roots
And wraps the buds
Colour is held deep below the surface
Waiting for the sun to rise above the rim
To draw back the veil of shadow
Letting the light seep back in.
And when it does all life knows
That its time has come again
New track… For the winter
A new composition from ‘The Life Of A River’ inspired by the deep winter experienced on Dartmoor, and the whole country, during the winter of 2010/11.
Here I’m trying to evoke the calm and peace you get after heavy snowfall, when the world becomes still and mute.
This track features an Oak flute in the key of F that I made during a workshop, with the composer Nigel Shaw and his artist wife Carolyn Hillyer. My wife, children and I spent a wonderful, if rather damp, July weekend at their amazing home on Dartmoor, with around twenty-five other people, making both flutes and drums. My wife came away with a beautiful deep and resonant Reindeer skinned, Ash framed drum.
I could not recommend this wonderful, inspiring, weekend retreat in the heart of Dartmoor highly enough.
Apart from the flute, which is the soul of the piece, this track is built with many layers created using a synthesizer. Each layer, after being played, goes through many stages of processing and finally re-amping, which puts the sounds into an acoustic space, before recording them back into the track. This helps knock some of the hard edges off the electronic sounds and gives them a bit of natural ambiance. Hopefully the combination of sounds will evoke feelings of the cold and isolation experienced in the wild during the deep winter.
For more information on Nigel and Carolyn visit their web site.
Seventh Wave Music.
http://www.seventhwavemusic.co.uk/home.html
New track
Here is a track titled ‘Fairy Bridge’ named after the location, where an old ford, and stepping stones crosses the river Swincombe. There is now a wooden walkway (the Fairy Bridge) for those who want to keep their feet dry… a small model fairy was placed under the bridge, though it was damaged, leaving only her feet behind. This is a great location in the summer, esp. if you have small children, who love playing in the shallow water, and leaping the stepping stones.
The track features cello, violin and tin whistle and was recorded, in part, on location.
Extract from ‘The Life Of A River’ poem
A section from the beginning of ‘The Life Of A River’. A long form poem, which will become a book/cd package, available from the exhibition venues and from the author directly.
Beneath a broad sky it begins
A birthing
In this high and quiet place
To which few bear witness
The life of a river
From the hanging cloud
Unburdening, scoured
A drip feed
A beginning
Drawn through, gossamer, filament and stem
The thin skin takes its fill
And gives to the river
The lands spill
A gift from the impoverished
A gift of fertility from the barren
