Summer hill
A doodle in wood, up to July 30th.
Prices range from £0 - £5k.
Mungo the Water Divider
The drive was terrible after being neglected for so long, and when the forestry came down the drainage was a deluge.
It took me about a month to ascertain exactly where the outflow changed direction, both up and down the drive.
I decided to mark the spot and what with working on fencing, came across various weird and wonderful branches.
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| Not so much a dragon, more a scorpion. |
It's thirsty work, dividing water.
A cacophony of dogs, August 1st.
DOGS
Dear Marge,
I live in a fairly remote spot in West Wales, surrounded by open land which used to be forestry. There are various surrounding tracks, suitable for dog walking.
Unfortunately, relatively recently someone has turned up in a sparkling clean land rover, with a mixture of five dogs of which he doesn't have control.
They seem to be terrorising the few dog walkers that use the area & have bothered my dog on three occasions.
I don't want to get aggressive – it is on my doorstep. Having walked two dogs in a city, I am used to “steeling” myself to what could/may happen with other owners in a park area.
Slap bang in the middle of the countryside, I don't feel like letting this idiot dictate to my timetable, in terms of avoiding him.
He is causing upset around the area in which I live.
A harsh discordant mixture of sound.
MULLIGAN'S BEND
19th July.
An event which occurred in the mid 70's.
----well, the sign is still there. Maybe people think it's s bona fide council sign.
One step closer to immortality, Jim.
The Swallow Family.
25th July
On the edge of twilight the swallow family came and flitted over the forecourt. A short but exuberant display, just before the midges appeared and the bats came out from under the eves.
They nested in the Wendy house – slightly annoyed by my comings and goings.
But were considerate enough to leave a single tidy pile of poo under their nest.
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| Oh dear, cant correct this at present! |
Squirrel Alert,
Although this course of action doesn't seem to have deterred them, (as a new entrance appears)
Into White
30th July.
It all started with the gleaming, sparkling monolith on the moor.
That used to be moor
Then was forestry
and now
Is moor again.
And a message from an old friend who told me that I had scraped some black paint off a difficult memory.
Why not draw in white?
Even if it is difficult?
This must be:
The White AlbumThe White Album
Fence
Fence, around late July.
Having a public footpath round the place contains good and bad points:
It's a great place to meet the kind of people that enjoy walking – This area of “forestry” is the biggest for quite a few miles. (Bigger than Canaston Wood)
BUT
I don't enjoy people suddenly appearing into view whilst enjoying a can of beer on the forecourt. And there is that cold wind that blows across the open land. (And who knows? I may keep sheep one day)
Last year, what with cutting down trees and saplings, I decided to make a wattle fence. Unfortunately, it doesn't impair vision into the place as much as I would like.
So I decided to “double up” - two lines of horizontal boughs, held in place, but not secured with fir stakes. Then filled with various countryside debris.
Should last a few years, mind it is an on-going project.
The Gate of clubs, a side entrance enabling me to transport “found objects” more conveniently home.
Tree-ness
2nd July
Perennial plant with self supporting main stem (usu. Developing woody branches at some distance from the ground)
Erect bush or shrub with single stem.
Erect bush or shrub with single stem.
Genealogical chart like branching tree.
Essence of tree being trunk, everything else being very peripheral.
Not the shelter of the world, or even the roots of our being.
Old drawings from Ravenscourt Park, Shepherds Bush – winter 1976, before they succumbed to Dutch Elm disease.
I have managed to save four big elms at Shipping Hill along with numerous saplings – I just let the saplings carry on, weeded round them type of thing.
Who knows if they will survive?
Maybe until they get too big and become attractive to the parasite.
From a hedgerow – Shipping Hill – same year.
Eulogy. Idea formulated 22nd June.
The demise of a fir and the start of a mosaic.
Douglas
After they chopped the forestry down the winds came along & blew down a lot of peripheral growth.
Amongst this was one of my favourite trees of all time.
Why didn't I paint it more?
This is, in a sense a Eulogy:
Well thought of words
(non)
ending for ^ humans.
Scandinavian Airlines used to give him a calendar every year, illustrated by a guy named Otto Nielsen. They were very bright and lively and as a teenager I loved 'em. I kept hold of two of them from the mid sixties, not really knowing what to do with them.
When I decided that the kitchen needed a mosaic over the sink, I realised that a good way of forcing colour into it would be by way of collage.
Large rough.
Fox gloves, 18th June.
Land, sky & horizon, Tim.
Rock Dog & the shining SouthPaws.
Rock Dog, from early June.
Nick, I started to knock it out as an idea, capture a moment in time, if you like. As it gained strength, I realised that I needed a reason in order to actually finish it. (Having many “very, very” important things to achieve in tandem.
Compositionally and in the initial doodle, “on the back of a fag packet” - (which I didn't want to change) All the violinists are left handed, maybe it's the way the necks of the violins go with the flow of the afternoon sunbeams!
Structurally, its all made up of Acrylic based paints, or paint with PVA medium in it. I also used water soluble wood treatment as an interim varnish in order to bond it together.
For me – I think I would tend just to lay it on an off white material background, with a sheet of glass covering it, but not flattening it. Slightly crinkly edges an' all.
It was a moment in time and seeing as I had set it up as a “big day” I suppose I was more than ready to pick up any crumbs that appeared on the tabletop.
Boot scraper
(Stuff, still to fit in)
Three or four pics of Derreck, Steve & I shifting the stuff up to the Hill.
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We broke the garden bench posing for a photo - all together. It was too much for the poor thing.
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The Van
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Smaller picture of when I arrived with the stuff of how it looked - since the last time I'd had a go at it. And the closer pic with the flotsam construction, now riddled with wood worm.
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Larger picture of the weather proofing after I left. It was one of the hardest working weeks of my life, it took a couple of days to recover.
June 2014
Envelope Fields
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Early Studio Shots (2014?)
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APRIL 2014 - with Steve and Derrek
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| Simon x Cathrin, Tenby |
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NOV 2013
Four shots taken in spring 2000
I think its to do with the pipe.
The stream with the eskimo reflection patterns I have looked for for years.
Up in the forestry - What I believe to be an old bomb crater (must have missed Milford Haven)
And last but not least - a still life from one of the shelves in the kitchen.
Plans for a shrubbery outside the cottage french windows.
Made in Turunc, Southern Turkey 14-06-91
-with Anne quite pregnant.
Design for a hand pump house.
For watering the vegetables.
This never got built but is interesting in that it was the for-running design for a series of huts and the like that I have built since. Although, not at Shipping Hill.
Christmas late 80's (not sure)
In an Italian sweater brought back from Rome by Anne after a summer course at the Royal School at Rome.
Fir 83
Fir 83
Stream 83
Down by the stream 83
Story Pool
The Wendy House, (built) 1982
Snowed in Jan 82
With Tony Wright, in a partial trance.
Following a year and a bit in India.
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76
Photos from Sue Macleod
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Tonight's the night
Good times with Sue Macleod, Dave and Lizzy Bridge, Tony Wright, Colin Cruikshank.
I built the wattle structures after an unfortunate accident and plaster cast resulting from a Taekwondo encounter - It was the only thing I could physically handle.
It was the year of the hot summer we built and fired a kiln down the slope.
Water colour of the valley C 1975
Now in possession of Jim Mulligan
Down at the packhorse bridge with Sekali the retriever. 74
Jim Bellewe surveys a daunting field of brambles 72
These photos were taken by my father to document the initial progress of rebuilding work at Shipping Hill in March 72. It was all mainly to do with turning the Cottage into something inhabitable and creating an extension with various washing facilities installed.
All lot of friends were called on to come and help!
End of the cottage with the caravan that the Harrys stayed in for a year or so.
Finished well shaft.
Digging a 30 ft well which contained too much iron and manganese to be of any use.
Also my fathers first vegetable patch.
Looking up over what they used to call "the moor" but which is now covered in forestry.
From the top of the top field looking down toward the valley
The end of the cottage with a hole for the french windows having been cut into it.
Also the start of the corridor like extension.
The drive leading out to the moor (now forestry) and the road - leading to Ludchurch.
March 72
Viewing the damage 72
The car,damaged by the surf that had two horns
and a sign in French warning about the dogs
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