Grafham Water – Page 2 – Pencil and Leaf

A Start with the Village Horse Chestnuts

By Val Littlewood February 24, 2014 December 31, 2019 Uncategorized

My first post for Lucy’s Tree Following Project for which I will be looking at the Horse Chestnut Tree: Aesculus hippocastanum

I don’t know much about these lovely trees yet, except that they are a tree of childhood days; of conkers, sticky buds on nature tables, the magnificent “candles” when in full bloom. “Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree” the children’s chanting rhyme with the accompanying actions.

Shade from the summers heat and a nesting tree for big birds. Also a favourite subject in the much loved Ladybird “What to look For in….” books with the lovely illustrations by Tunnicliffe and in the Shell Guides with S. R. Badmin’s quintessentially English paintings. More of these artists in future Chestnut posts.
It’s not a native I know, but a magnificent specimen tree for stately homes, parklands and village greens. Although from an economic point of view they are not a very useful tree, they are none the less very beautiful.. so fall well within the “beautiful or useful” category of William Morris. I know that, like many other trees, the Horse Chestnuts are having some problems.
In this case they falling prey to the unsightly leaf miner and the more serious bleeding canker. I will learn more about all of this as I go. Initially I need to understand the basics and so I am starting with its shape. I made some quick sketches on my walk.

There are several scattered around the village from young to old which is useful. Trees look very different from different angles and are very complex things to draw, but for me sketching is the very best way to see and understand the basic shape.

This is perhaps the oldest in the village and the one I can see from the front room of the house. The street light gives some idea of its size.

There are two in Church field, in a group of four trees. A glimpse of the reservoir between the trees.

Two young trees down the lane one still with its plant stake. Sketches in A5 sketchbook

The Horse Chestnut is described as “ a native in the Balkan Peninsula A. hippocastanum grows to 36 metres (118 ft) tall, with a domed crown of stout branches; on old trees the outer branches often pendulous with curled-up tips”

I now see that the very long lower branches in the older trees hang elegantly down and curl up. The sticky buds on the ends of the upturning branches are just about to burst. Church Field Boundary Trees The two horse chestnuts in a group of four trees, one on the right of this sketch and one next to it. This view is with my back to the reservoir looking back to the church, which, minus dragon, is in the background.

Village Horse Chestnut

This is a huge tree which overhangs the road. Its lower branches hang down into the garden behind the fence while the roadside branches I think have been cut back. There were wonderful conkers this year.

The same tree as my No 1 sketch, Ugly Bungalow roof in the back ground.:)
A4 sketchbook

Tree of Kiev
Coincidentally The Horse Chestnut is a symbol of Kiev. I can only hope that the beautiful flowers to come in the spring will also bring a time of peace and political freedom to its population. It seems the Chestnuts were planted in some respects to spite the poplar loving Russian Emperor Nicholas I..

“In 1842, botanical likings of Kiev citizens and Russian authorities got drastically different. By the second half of the 19th century Lombardy poplars with the support of royal power finally became a symbol of tsarism, autocracy and conservative «patriarchal» orthodox Kiev, while chestnut trees meant for Kiev citizens disobedience to the central authorities in St. Petersburg, a new urban development and municipal government. Chestnut tree was associated with constructive opposition to absolutism. Step by step, Kievans began to give advantage to attractive chestnut trees (which were also helpful in summer hit because they were shady) instead of «officiously» decorative poplars that had no practical usage.”

Read more from the Discovery Kiev website here Trees as subversive and defiant symbols. Wonderful.

The Simplicity of Line

By Val Littlewood February 14, 2014 December 31, 2019 Uncategorized

Over at the artist’s twitter group it’s #linefebruary. So this week I have been doing some line sketching.
Line, to me, means just line, which could be reproduced in only black and white with no halftones. I normally take a wash brush with me to add tonal values but this week for a change I have used just black and white and different combinations of pens, some dip pens, some technical pens

Everywhere are tangles of brambles.

There is a place on the path where heaps of long mown meadow grass have been slowly drying and disintegrating. They provide cover for small animals who have burrowed into the heaps and the wind has formed them into swirls.

I an rather fascinated by these forms and make this white on black study of one of the heaps.

Windy reservoir …

…and thumbnails of bits and pieces. All approx A4.

I have put this page in upside down, which makes things even more interesting. They are all based on the reservoir walks so I know exactly what and where they were, although some bear very little resemblance to the place.
Perhaps you could say they just have something of the essence of each place, which is often all that an artist really wants to achieve. I love pure black and white. It provides a different view and proposes many different possibilities. Some of the marks can be wonderful if you can let them happen.

Fairy Money, Snake Stones, Devil’s Fingers…and Bertie.

By Val Littlewood January 12, 2014 January 1, 2020 Uncategorized

I am continuing my explorations of the fossils that can be found here at Grafham. So far I have found Gryphaea, Belemnites, bits of Ammonites but as yet no sections of Crinoid stems. They are a common find but I need to take some more time to look as they are tiny..but unexpectedly very beautiful. Some are simple and circular in sections and some are star shaped.

Photograph from the British Geological Survey website.
If you are lucky enough to find a more complete fossil it would be rather like this.

Fossil Folklore

Crinoids
In folklore these beautiful slender columns were thought to have stretched from earth up into the heavens, occurring at times of storms and were known individually as star stones. The simple discs with a handy central hole were thought to be fairy money or “St Cuthbert’s Beads”

from http://www.jsjgeology.net/Ausich-talk.htm

Ammonites
Ammonites are particularly interesting with their beautifully coiled shape. It’s not surprising that they were known as snake stones.
But I am fond of snakes so was dismayed to discover that they were thought to be the remains of snakes, cursed and turned to stone by St Hilda.
And then to add insult to injury they were subject to a beheading curse by St Cuthbert. All this to account for these curious curled and apparently headless things found in abundance near Whitby.
I have written about this snaky connotations over at Printdaily. See Ammonite:The Curious Snake Stone.

Ammonites occurring in architectural stone are quite common but it is thought that this ammonite imprinted stone was specially selected for the entrance to Stony Littleton’s Neolithic Chambered Long Barrow.

From Chris Collyer’s completely fascinating Stone Circles UK website.

Belemnites I wrote about my splendid Belemnite find in my last post and as with the Devils Toenails these bullet shaped things had devillish associations, being known as Devil’s fingers or Thunderbolts occurring after thunderstorms. It’s interesting that many of the legends relate to storm activity, I guess heavy rains would have revealed the fossils leading to an understandable connection.

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It’s all very inspiring for an artist (especially one with leaning towards the dark side) but for the meanwhile here are a couple more of my simple fossil inspired experiments for this week’s Beautiful Beasts work.
Ammonite

Roughs and the block

Lino 4 x 6 overprinted with fronds

With added type.. For more info see Printdaily

Belemnite I had made three different possible background plates, fronds, wavy lines and a circle and then the lino was a 2 colour reduction.

Frond background and first printing.

Circle background, first lino print was rotated and reprinted. Then second colour added.

Chris said “what are you calling it?” “Bertie the Belemnite.” I said.

Oh dear, it just slipped out. I am supposed to be a serious artist but I guess it will stick, as these things have a tendency to do. And one last print.

With wavy background and two colours. I will post more of the process on Printdaily soon.

And to end, a glorious bunch of Berties on the Bench.

Well, its been that sort of day … more fossils next week…

Small Beginnings: Devil’s Toenails

By Val Littlewood January 6, 2014 January 1, 2020 Uncategorized

“Beginnings” are always exciting and surely nothing can be more exciting than the earliest forms of life. Fossils, I thought might be the perfect place to start my year of exploring the world of Beasts. This first week then will explore my local fossils. I live by Grafham Reservoir whose shoreline is littered with shelly fossils. They are mostly Gryphaea remains, otherwise known, delightfully, as “devils toenails”.

Gryphaea, a fossil bivalve

This beautiful image is from the Natural History Museum’s page on the Gryphaea of Lyme Regis.
The ones we see here are much more weathered and misshapen but there is still the magic feeling of handling something so very ancient. They are from the early Jurassic period approx 199-189 million years ago. There must be millions of them here. Most of the ones from the shore here look like this:

Devils Toenails from Grafham Reservoir shore Jan 2014

A typical piece of the “shingle”in today’s sun. It’s mostly made up of bits of graphaea from a bay on the reservoir that I, really creatively, call Devil’s Toe Nail Cove.

Devils Toenails 2012 Sketches from earlier P&L post, inspired by their odd shapes. In life the Gryphaea were bivalves and relatives of our oysters. From Bristol University’s site Fossil Types

GRYPHAEA (or Devil’s Toenail): An extinct genus of bivalve. It is believed to have been an unattached recumbent recliner on the sea floor, with its very own self-righting mechanism if a strong current knocked it out of the sediment.

From the Natural History Museum’s Gryphaea page

“As a bivalve it possesses two valves. The valves are markedly unequal in size and shape, the left valve is strongly incurved, the right valve is small and flat. The left shell is thick and its surface is marked with numerous ridges. They lived on the sea floor with the flat right valve facing up, it probably acted like a lid, when open allowing water carrying oxygen and nutrients to flow in and be filtered out of the water.”

Having read this, it now makes more sense of the shape.

Devil’s Toenails: Graphaea Fossils from Grafham Water

Pencil on cartridge 8 x10”

I did find one today with a fraction of the “lid” intact. See the drawing top left. It explains some other odd shaped things I have found.

Devils Toenail?
The name does seem rather obvious when you see the gnarled and twisted shapes. Some may have thought they were the actual toenails of demons. In that case there were legions of demons around Grafham, which could account for quite a bit. More about these strange creatures, other local fossils and their inhabitants tomorrow.

Wild Weather and A Blog Make Over

By Val Littlewood January 5, 2014 January 1, 2020 Uncategorized

It’s been wild here, wet and windy. On Friday, in the darkening late afternoon I slipped and slid my way up to the track behind the reservoir. To the west the sky was smouldering with remnants of the sun. I had cleaned out the fire earlier that morning and was struck by how brilliantly the dying embers glowed amongst the black ash. This sky was the same.

Afternoon Sky over the Reservoir Jan 3rd

The wind was tremendous and deafening. Rooks and crows hung motionless, facing into the wind then were tossed away and intermittent blasts of icy rain splattered my cold cheeks.
I thought I should turn back lest I get blown away, shredded by flailing thorny brambles, snatched up by dark forces or just sucked into some slippery and bottomless clay bog. But this type of weather has its own seductive beauty. It is exhilarating and elemental and dangerous. It makes you imagine that you too are wild and free. I am getting back to sketching and carry a small sketchbook in my pocket, so in the shelter of the wood I made these quick sketch notes.

Dark clouds rolling away over to the horizon. The bare stems of cow parsley are light against the dark land.

Wind tossed birds.

Choppy waters with bouncing ducks.

Swampy inland pools with ducks, just like the mangroves in FLA.
A5 sketchbook, Pilot Vpoint and a waterbrush.

Let in the light
After 6 years of patching up, adding on and dabbling with HTML it was time to shake up Pencil and Leaf to go hand in hand with (hopefully) a new website. I had looked at the blog recently and thought this is all way too cosy.

So it is a little different now, and what a relief. It’s like cutting your hair or pruning an old shrub, letting in the air, the light and space for new development. I could not part with the Lizard so it was just a redraw and redesign. However I am no web designer so it’s an excruciatingly slow process and still in progress. The website, simple though it is, will be some time yet.

But I like having the different blogs and sites… They are like starting new and exciting sketchbooks and are far more organised then my hellish piles of notes and sketches.

Unexpected Silver

By Val Littlewood December 6, 2013 January 1, 2020 Uncategorized

On this bleak grey day I walked down to the reservoir. The storm has ripped most of the remaining leaves from the branches and the sky was leaden. It looked like snow. Then suddenly the sun came out and illuminated the water.

At this time of the year the sudden light on the water is dazzling and brilliant. The shining water was visible through the trees by the shore, a seldom seen glimpse of silver from this particular path I made some quick sketches and notes but it was too cold to stay long.

There was a single white feather caught in the dark branches and many inky black coot on the shoreline.

Sketchbook pages A4 Back home I made some black and white sketches:

Sketches 6 x 4 inches
It’s dark at 4.30….

Six Skies over The Water

By Val Littlewood June 13, 2013 January 4, 2020 Uncategorized

Practice practice practice. It’s my constant advice (nag nag nag) to my workshop students. It can sound very repetitive but, really, it is the only way to improve. We need to practice all aspects of creativity, practise looking, practise thinking, and practise the skills that enable us to work in whatever branch of “art” we have chosen.

I probably do pick up a pencil most days to either write down ideas, sketch or draw and in between teaching courses I have been doing lots of experimental odds and ends which is why the blog has been a bit quiet.
What is so encouraging is when someone returns to a workshop having put in a bit of sketching time and can really see their own understanding and confidence grow as their skills improve.

After my last workshop I realised that I still have a problem persuading people to make tonal studies before starting their final work or just as an aid to “seeing.” They can be so helpful especially in watercolour where you strive to retain the lightness of the white paper. So, as some experiments for myself and to have a few samples, I sketched some basic skies to show how tiny monochrome thumbnails can be made into simple coloured images.

Reservoir Skies The weather has been strange, cold, sunny, windy, cloudy, still, clear and breezy so there have been some good skies at different times of the day.
I have started walking by the Reservoir again and realised I how much I have been missing the sky vistas. In the house we are a little hemmed in by trees and houses but down by the Water you have an unrestricted view… just water, a strip of horizon and then glorious sky.
So these small watercolour sketches are based on pen and ink thumbnails made in a tiny sketchbook from my walks. I am also trying some different papers. Not impressed at all with the Fabriano block which buckled badly. Some old Langton was better!

Busy morning sky over Perry

Big clouds on a still morning lit from behind by sun.

Strip of pale yellow in cloudy midday sky

Smudges of brown rain in a grey sky… but hopes of brightening up

Evening sky with cumulus. Dark greeny blue behind clouds.

Sunset over the Water, heavy night clouds hang over a bright strip. Watercolour sketches approx 5 x 6”. pen sketches in 4 inch sketchbook.

I am much more interested in the marks, the colour and how the paint behaves on the surfaces and the happy accidents than whether they look like clouds or not.
And, if I took these colour pieces and used them as my source material for another set of paintings who knows what they might become? Chinese Whispers in paint is a nice concept.

What does “finished” mean

I sometimes hesitate to put things on the blog because it might infer that I am either pleased with them or that they are “finished” .. whatever that means. I am seldom pleased and “finished” can mean many things. Sometimes I have just had enough, sometimes I have run out of time.

Many times I don’t stop soon enough and sometimes things need more work. Often I have to leave things face to the wall for a week or so, then go back to them. Sometimes a week of work results in a complete and utter mess.
Sometimes a few lines are so beautiful I can’t believe I made them.. but then how do you define “beautiful”? How are your skies today?…Beautiful I hope.

Early April Willow Sketches

By Val Littlewood April 15, 2013 January 4, 2020 Uncategorized

Last week I had my first sketching walk of the year, not so much a walk as a stagger, but it was good just to get out in some almost warm sun. I went down to the nature reserve where they have been cutting back the willows. There is a curious look to the landscape. Fallen trees, half cut down trees, old pollards with new shoots and new pollards with nothing but stumps. The willows rise up out of swampy ground and there is an odd feeling of desolation, of a war torn landscape reminding me of some of Paul Nash’s bleak paintings. But here, rather than destruction, it is just life on hold, just waiting to get going again. In fact you have to admire willows for their vigour and ability to regenerate after even the most severe pruning. In the sun the stems glow yellow, purple and greeny brown. Some are almost orange. There were a few catkins here and there.

The stumps of newly pollarded trees and below the exuberant growth of whips from an old trunk.

The old fallen willows are covered with an abundance of moss. In amongst the moss bracket fungi grow. Beautiful delicate things. I liked the shapes, the points of the fern fronds, the waved edges of the fungi and the random placement of twigs and one leaf.

These were made a week ago on the 8th. I am sure things will have moved on by now. With more of a promise of Spring I will be out again very soon.

Willows: A Start. The whys and wherefores of a drawing

By Val Littlewood March 21, 2013 January 4, 2020 Uncategorized

Starting with Willow I decided quite early on that I would make a start on the Residency with some work about the Willow Tree. Looking over my sketches from the summer the willows are so often there. It is an iconic tree of this currently sodden, watery area and they line the Reservoir.
There are local names for some varieties, the Bedford Willow, the Huntingdon Willow. They are everywhere and there are many different kinds. One book notes 18 UK varieties.
I like to start things with drawing and research. The purpose of both are to get to know my subject. I can read and learn but I don’t think I really “see” unless I draw.

What is the purpose of drawing.. for me

Drawing, for me, is all about learning. Initially it’s about trying to record what I can see. Accuracy at this stage is important to me because the more accurate I try to be, the more I must study the subject.
Through drawing I will learn about structure, line, colour and form, but most importantly I begin to discover what it is I like about something. And that is really important. My first exploratory drawings of the willows are just a few leaves.

I am still not out and about much but I brought some tatty old leaves back from my shoreline walk about a month ago. Once inside they dry out, twist and form wonderfully curled shapes.

My drawing and models

My way of arranging them for drawing is to throw them onto white paper and see what happens. This works much better for me than carefully and deliberately arranging things. It is also the way my Filipino gardener friend Pedro, back in Leu Gardens, plants seeds and bulbs. His handling of plants was one of great empathy, respect and understanding. He was well rewarded.

“ Three Willow Leaves” pencil on hp paper, 10 x14 inches

So here is a drawing of the leaves. I loved the curling shape and the way the cast shadows tell of a shape you cannot see. The desiccated surface of the leaf makes the central vein more prominent and I could see the layers of the surface, some were peeling away. Tiny bits broke off. These things are very brittle and fragile.

The hours it takes are all a part of the slow absorption of the information. It’s a very peaceful process and totally absorbing. It reminds me of my old “leaf of the day” drawings. I will be doing quite a few more study drawings and some sketches and colour notes. There may be a lot about willows this coming year!

Update, Artist in Residence Blog, Exciting Things and a Favicon

By Val Littlewood March 10, 2013 January 4, 2020 Uncategorized

I realised on Friday that a whole week had gone by without much drawing at all. But I did have a day in the garden and then my creative energies had to be channelled into writing, letters, adverts, proposals, workshop notes and updating my blog, adding some extra pages for workshops and creating a quick new blog for the Residency.

We also had two busy workshop days Workshops We had the most beautiful day at Barnesdale Gardens for the first Illustrated Garden Workshop and the most horrible freezing and foggy day for our first Easton Walled Gardens Workshop day. Luckily the Easton Painters are a sturdy and resolute group who turn out, have a laugh, produce great work and always make my day a real pleasure. Thank you to all participants.

Artist in Residence Grafham Water

A small pen illustration to accompany a piece about the residency

and adjusted to B/W for our village newsletter .

Meanwhile I have started my research and planning for the Artist in Residence year.

There are many different kinds of residency. Some you pay for (I have seen some lovely but very expensive ones recently), some will pay you (not many). I am self funding and wanted the local community and Anglian Water’s customers to rest easy, knowing that the company are not frittering away money on something so frivolous as Art! So why do this you may ask? Mainly because we don’t have very much going on in the arts locally and I thought it was time there was more! Jackie has done a wonderful job in getting the Village Art group going, but we have no local art spaces, no wonderful barn workshop conversions, no galleries, no art shops or studio spaces. We are neither underprivileged enough to get funding or sufficiently privileged to have huge amounts of spare money around. We are on the edge of 3 counties, just in Cambridgeshire but quite a long way from its artsy centre.

Of course one of the things I love about this area is the very fact of its curious isolation, bypassed and tucked away as it is, but I also think it is such a beautiful area with so much potential that it could be used and enjoyed by more creative people. So we have 5 workshops planned, exhibitions and a possible celebration for next Easter time which will combine my end of residency show and a project I am in the middle of developing which will be great if I can make it work! I have written a little about the Residency HERE at the other blog. I hope you will join me there to see what is happening.

The Exciting Things
..are the opportunities that are beginning to arise.

As part of the residency I will be able to learn so much more about what goes on at the Nature Reserve over at the West side of the Reservoir, where we will hold the workshops. It is managed by the Wildlife Trusts the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire branch who also look after the nearby Brampton Woods. They organise some great activities and there are some fascinating species hidden away.

Here is a link to a PDF about the Reserve

And our Easton Group show will be happening over August Bank Holiday from 21st to the 25th of August at Easton Walled Gardens. It’s a great opportunity to show our work at this lovely venue. …

and yes Pencil and Leaf Blog has a little bee favicon (what else!)..it took a lot of time and bad language to make this tiny thing but it is rather sweet. So if you lose me in your tabs look for the bee!

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Meanwhile the Foot is back under the knife tomorrow, the pin has slipped and is sticking into the joint. Yes, excruciating, but hopefully recovery not too long this time. This is not my foot but Leonardo’s drawing. I think mine is nicer.
Reading is lined up: “Fludd” ( more Hilary Mantel bliss) and “Edge of the Orison” by Iain Sinclair about the poet John Clare’s eighty mile trudge home after escaping from the Asylum. Sinclair will be describing a part of the UK I know well. His insights will be interesting.

Tag: Grafham Water