Yesterday was generally bleak and blustery, and I had to make a definite effort to leave my front door. Trying to impose a bit of self-discipline, I decided to make drawing every 20 steps, walking widdershins around the lighthouse. I don’t think this will have had any adverse effects on the weather. In any case, I think avoiding anticlockwise ambulation only applies to churches.
Anyway … 20 paces, stop and draw until the page is full. And repeat. The results are more or less what you might expect: firstly I lasted for four drawings-worth before my fingers got too cold to hold the pen. Secondly, the attention to detail falls off exponentially with exposure to the wind. Fortunately a lot of the lighthouse buildings resemble concrete blockhouses (left over from world war II) so a couple of straightish lines gives a general idea of what is in front of you. The final 20 paces brought me face to face with a rainwater downpipe, after which I had to give up. As a topographical record of a lighthouse it’s almost useless – as a record of the experience of walking 40 paces in a towering gale it’s spot on.
