Residency Diary
January
My spring plan to explore the Abbey and Gardens through drawings has had a very
cold beginning. The freezing temperatures kept me from visiting the Gardens and
instead I made short sketching trips to the lanes and countryside close to home.
I looked at man-made marks in the landscape: deep tractor tracks that brought
to mind the marks made by a claw tool (stone chisel), and the patterns made by
trucks cutting deeply into grass verges on muddy lanes.
These artificial curves cutting through nature, creating patterns abutting natural
textures show up strongly in the low winter sun.
Tractor Tracks, Jan 09
February
On a sun filled day, following a fine lunch of liver and onion gravy at the Restaurant,
I entered the freezing, snowy beauty of the Abbey and Water Gardens. The Abbey's
stonework was glorious, alive with pinks and oranges glittering in the sunshine.
However, I was utterly confused by the Water Gardens; the precise, considered
edges that define the water's curves were altered by a soft, humpy landscape and
frozen, snow-covered waters. A hard, brilliant white snow replaced the gentle
and various green textures of grass. Nature was overwhelming artifice and me,
my toes and fingers got very cold!
After time at home studying photos of stonework and mouldings I went to draw
the double bridge over the nearby canal at East Marton; it was very cold and at
times snowing hard.
As the snow receded I returned to the Water Gardens and began to look harder
at the formal pools and the Bosquets, the yew hedges that contain the groups of
trees and shrubs.
Snowy Water Gardens, Feb 09
Abbey Capitals, Feb 09
Bosquet, Feb 09
