I had meant to publish this one of great auntie Joan on her 91st birthday.
She was really happy to have us over making her a birthday dinner, but at the same time didn't make a big fuss and just scheduled an eye appointment in the middle of the party we threw her. Funny! But, hey, if you are 91 you can do whatever you want at your party including leaving it!
There was a lot of mud.
Nigel, our expert navigator, led us on through some very confusing areas where we were scrambling through fields of nesting pheasants.
We spent a considerable amount of time sinking into mud.
This area was a protected sanctuary.
We made the wrong turn somewhere near this gate.
We wound up at this ford in the road, which I slipped and fell right smack in the middle of on my bum. I was wet the rest of the walk.
We crossed this long field and entered the last field until we came to our parked car. That was when we spotted the enormous white bull. Nigel said, "look how that one has a ring in its nose". Alarmed I looked and saw the bull among the cows. We crept very carefully along the edge of the field and noticed the bull has placed himself right by our last style. We got out alive!
And immediately when we finished our walk it clouded over.
I warmed up (once out of my wet clothes) by the fire!
A friend of mine and a great and innovative artist, Janice Macaulay, organised a march with positive placards and linked it to a vegetable garden she was growing in a gallery garden setting. It was in the summer so I am pathetic at remembering the name or details of the event.
The great thing is that Janice is really very innovative in her work and has started a great forum and lecture series in people's homes called Universettee (www.universettee.com). The only criteria is that someone volunteers their home and there is a settee there, while everyone attending brings food, and whoever is giving the talk, recital, demonstration, etc...just shows up.
Nigel and I gave a talk and power point presentation on our time in Liberia. (note the black tulips above).
The old English Art Academy's would have models for all the students.
Art Angel in London offered free Life Drawing classes for two weeks solid in a variety of locations. Above is a 10-15 minute pose that I drew.
It got me back to the roots of what I did for years before going to art school. Above are gesture drawing that each life drawing class will start out with for a warm up. The poses are anywhere from 10-30 seconds and in that time you must capture the gesture (pose) and as much blocking in of shadows as you can.
Perfecting my technique of the human form. This is another 10 minute pose.
The human form is meant to be the most difficult thing to learn to draw. More gesture drawings.
If one makes a mistake on drawing a tree or a flower no one would ever know. But on the human form it really stands out. Above on the left we used a technique of not looking at our page and only at the model. On the right we could only use straight lines.
I think these may have been continuous line drawings.
One of the 10-15 minute poses.
And the rest are gesture drawings.
It started out pretty normally. We headed through a very muddy section and through the gate you see above. As we rounded the pond and noted the field we were to walk across we saw 3 bulls and abruptly stopped.
We backtracked through the marsh and decided to go "off-route" to avoid them at all costs.
We also noticed that our host randomly drew lines where no footpaths occurred and we spent a lot of time rummaging around in the bush trying to figure out where we were supposed to go. In the end we completely gave up.
Some snow drop flowers.
There were some nice bits we stopped at when we thought we knew where we were.
A road...nice and staightforward!
This pond was a landmark "with a trail", but no trail existed. It ended being a shorter walk than usual!
Now that I am taking you all through Suffolk, I thought I should include a map of where we are in the UK.
Here is a close up map of the area. Click on the map for a larger image.
The area is where the English painter, John Constable, did a lot of his painting in.
Each day we are getting up and going out and doing a walk.
There are public footpaths in the UK countryside all over the country that run through farms and nature reserves.
Farmers do not opt to be in this plan, but are told a public footpath is going through their property.
Of course you have to get past horses, sheep, and cows many times and there are gates to open and close and stiles to climb.
Some farmers don't appreciate the government making their property a public right of way and put a bull in their field. We have come across this twice in Suffolk and consider our options very carefully.
This particular walk has no bulls, but required footwear are big gumboots (or Wellingtons, as the British call them).
The ground is so wet and sometimes you find yourself slogging through 6 inches of mud in a farmers freshly tilled fields.
This trip is no acception.
I thought this was a nice view minus that big metal pipe going through it.
I personally think this is the perfect weather for hiking. A bit cold and a bit sunny.
Here is the scene that John Constable painted in the "Hay Wain".
The Hay Wain, by John Constable.
This is my attempt to get the same angle as the painting.
Ah, a good book at the end of the day!
