From the car park at West Stoke there is 1-2 mile walk to the entrance to Kingley Vale. An information hut with a map directing visitors through and around the ancient yews to the tumuli at the top. I park just the left of the hut, the car stacked with materials ‘just in case’.
Day 1
I take the chair, sketchbook, a pen, pencil and phone.
I walk off the main path, find a spot, sit and look, then draw what catches my eye. Let the words about this come to mind and use them to write a 5, 7, 5 syllable haiku. Find another spot and repeat.
I notice the words are either a statement about what i’m looking at, or a statement about myself or people i know or have known in the past. That there is a relationship between me, the forest and others expressed in the words, found in the observational drawing of trees.
Walking in and around the trees I drew a line in the sketchbook, the pen moved at the same pace as I walked, I drew landmark trees and posts, and tried to get lost. I re-drew as I retrod some paths. I questioned whether I was mapping to relocate the trees (a treasure map), or to know my way, be safe, return to the car. Mapping to determine relation between one tree to another, the map allowing me know objects by position. Sitting, drawing, looking, a different knowing takes place. The landmark of the process is the text.
There were visitors, i wanted to avoid being close to people, to find space to be peaceful and unobserved whilst I observed nature. Air blossomed with birdsong. Pheasants scratched and flapped and screetched, they tread very carefully along the ground. Beeflies spotted, and thankfully no snakes. Thoughts about safety, how to create a space safe to discover, how to take risks, to become lost. Everything is noisy or moving or colourful except the trunks and branches of the trees. The line between light and dark, bright green glades and brown earth beneath the yews. A high contrast of colour. I found a goldsworthy’esque circle of stones and sticks and a wamping ash. Each tree of interest I drew with text.
Created three drawing strategies.
