The Watchers

The oldest parts of the small Church of All Saints here probably date back to the Thirteenth Century, the earliest stone work in the Nave from about 1220 AD. Although it has been added to and restored it is generally a plain and simple place, but here and there are a few delightful figurative carvings, mostly headstops at the ends of the hood moulds which arch over the exterior windows and doors.

Since we first moved here I have been completely fascinated by these curious heads which have been staring out over the village for centuries. I think there are about 10 of them, some so weathered that their features are almost non-existent.
Every time I walk through the churchyard I say hello. I am not sure of the dates of them but some of them would certainly date back to the earliest stone building.

Fridays Sketches:

Carved headstops from the exterior of Grafham Church, roughly sketched in the cold churchyard with some added tones back at home.

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Six carved heads

It’s an odd thing but I feel I will have to do these again and much more accurately. The human heads will, I am sure, have been carved with a person in mind and somehow I owe it to them and their long, cold, vigil to get it right.

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One of the two creatures on the bell tower window.

What have these quiet watchers seen? Love, life, birth, death, happiness, sadness, famine, feast, sickness, health, wealth and poverty. They have survived storms and droughts and the mixed fortunes of this small village. I wonder who carved them and who else they have conversed with over the years. I am extremely fond of them.

I spent a day, in 2012, drawing in and around the church, see Another Sketchbook Day. Reading it again I see I was as curious then about what the watchers had seen.  How could you not be?

The Thing

Sketch Week: Day 4

I try to walk most days and have only missed two since Christmas. Yesterday it was dull with misty drizzle. The sweet woodsmoke from the houses lay heavy in the lanes. In these dark afternoons the woods smell warm, peaty and mossy. It is somehow comforting.  Colours are subdued and monochrome, so the old white spiral tree protectors shine out.
They are mostly split now as the trees have expanded.  Some blow about in the undergrowth or like this one have been assimilated into the tree structure. In this case two trunks have grown very close together trapping the protector as it split. I have a few pieces of these curled shapes, they are lovely to draw.
A trick of perspective gave this one a wan face, a poor trapped thing, its grasping arms never again to meet, as the tree relentlessly expands.

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A5 sketchbook

Pony sketches

Sketch week: Day 3.

A couple of sketches today to celebrate the Chinese Year of the Horse This black and white pony grazes in a field down the lane. It is the same field that had the lost gloves on the posts. There is only one glove now and I think possibly the other one is inside the pony. It would have been tempting to nibble at the waving fingers.

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Shetland Pony sketches It is very black and white with a sprinkling of mud too. In the half light of late afternoon it is almost lost in the far hedge.

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Pony at Dusk A5 sketchbook  And a pen and ink sketch from the initial drawing

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Happy Year of the Horse to you all…

Sketch Week

A week of sketching and other things ….

1. Here be Dragons… We have a least two in the Village.. probably more but I have yet to meet them.

I sketched these two handsome beasts today, on a bright sunny rain-free morning. I don’t like hanging around outside peoples houses so these were very quick and approximate.
They live on a cottage roof from where, at night, they take wing. Actually I think one of them is a gryphon. They are mostly silhouetted as the path is on the north side of the house.

They have different take-off points The big dragon is poised at the end of stepped tiles and the smaller gryphon crouches at the bottom of a curving slope.

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I have admired them since we came here. They sit very well on their cottage.

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Pen and Ink Sketches:  A5 sketchbook.

Four Found Fossils

I have spent hours experimenting with different combinations of the images and backgrounds. It is a very good exercise for learning about overlays registration etc. I will post more of the stages on Printdaily next week, but for now here are four fossils prints based on the fragments I found here at Grafham.

A is for Ammonite


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B is for Belemnite

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C is for Crinoid

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D is for Devils Toenail

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All are reduction Lino prints: Image 6 x 4 inches I am not quite finished with the fossils yet and am playing about with ideas for a small concertina form which will use the single prints in some way.

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This was a first rough idea.
I hope to get something more done next week. I do like these little book forms.

“you could draw us – the small dragon – on your church spire …”

Yes I could…with pleasure. This comment was left on my blog after my last post: Puppets and Dragons. I wrote:

“It makes you wonder about the “real sightings” of dragons.
On this black windy night we have just been for a walk. Fast dark clouds race across the face of the moon, twisted branches of bare trees flicker in the intermittent light. It’s easy to stumble, to lose your way, to misinterpret the wind shearing through the branches for something else.  In a flash of moonlight did I see a small dragon twisting itself around the spire of our village church?…Who knows.”

Diana commented:

“you could draw us – the small dragon – on your church spire….”

I am not one to shrink from a challenge. This is for you Diana, my faithful blog reader!

Initial thumbnails….

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The pencil sketch

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The ink sketch.

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Ahh black and white heaven. There is nothing this girl likes better than getting out the black ink and the old dip pen Dragon on the Spire of All Saints Grafham …. almost done…

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I was just going to post this when I realised the small dragon seemed to be looking for something. But there is nothing there. To land on an unknown church spire on a dark winter night seemed a lonely prospect, so I added a welcoming figure.

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That’s better.

A Small Dragon seen on the the spire of All Saints Grafham Cambs.
Recorded faithfully by Val Littlewood on the 15th Dec 2013

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Happy Solstice to you all….