life amongst the gum trees

Working back in the urban studio is making me dream of Australia again. Before leaving I was in the Snowy Mountains near Lake Eucambene. It is a landscape with trees that tell its history: amongst the gum trees, European trees nestle where homesteads once were. Eucambene was a thriving community supporting several hundreds of people while the Snowy Mountain (Hydro) scheme was being built and now the few remaining houses are used mostly as agricultural sheds. The dam was completed in 1958.  

tin shed on a farm in the Snowy Mountains

Eucalyptus

What I particularly loved were the eucalyptus trees. With the amount of water and ground water in the region they grow tall. 

Evening amongst eucalyptus trees

Fig trees

I have just returned from 6 weeks of drawing trees in Australia. An extraordinary experience and they were bewilderingly beautiful. My journey began with a visit to the Royal Botanic Gardens plant pathology laboratories in Sydney. I have to thank them for allowing me to visit, I learnt so much. The images of what I saw were so attractive like microscopic etchings.

Tree in the Botanic Gardens

I spent most of my time in Sydney working with urban trees. I was three weeks in Bellevue Hill Park drawing Morton Bay Fig trees. It is rare that I have the chance to work somewhere so deliciously warm.

work in progress, ink drawing

When the nearby school was sealed from the park because traces of fibro building material had been found (containing asbestos) that were being washed down from the park above, I began to realise that life for an urban tree (or artist) can be more precarious than one realizes. Fortunately the site was given the all clear and the asbestos particles were discovered to be bound within the building material.  

Parking, texts and busses

It is such a privilege to have work installed. I am really delighted that the latest text piece has been adopted by Cambridge County Council Transport Department as a permanent artwork. The whole work has been taken from its original locations in the town and can be read as one piece, a sort of "Welcome to Cambridge" text. It is located at the Trumpington Park and Ride just outside the city.

 

The whole piece reads: this way for rippled hills and ripe, bursting fields blue sky and dressed stone formality. Dipped anthracite clouds poised to varnish. Domestic housing, waving effervescent flowers, pensive dogs and green flag grass. Quiet walls and walked stone lead to hidden squares and bursts of persistent lawn. 

It is the experience of 24 hours in Cambridge from the the viewpoint of a visitor. Many thanks to the Park and Ride team for installing this text and for their support in the process and of course thank you also to Text and Context Cambridge for inviting me to participate without them none of this would have been realised. 

lines out of context

Organizing things from a distance can be complicated. This Cambridge project is more fun when I am there to talk to people in person. Fortunately I have a whole support team (they deserve lots of thanks) all is starting to take a definite form and if the original plan is not working then the back-up one will.

I have been testing laminated signs in the studio to see how long they will stay fixed up to windows with tiny suction cups. This job really does lead to new worlds, I had no idea how sophisticated the manufacture of the suction cup is. It makes me realise how important it is to appreciate the little details. The smallest of things may take years to design and perfect.

Recently I was lucky enough to be in a location where I could spontaneously create and install a text piece. It would disappear in a few minutes of brushing or light rain. Leaving no trace is part of what I do, having fun while doing it, makes my job worthwhile.

 

Rock pools: lines out of context

 

 

...and tree shadows smile

new context

For a brief period of 24 hours I was in Cambridge on a site visit for a text installation I am making there. I travelled cross-country from Oxford to Cambridge with the bus. It was fascinating to travel through the English landscape after so recently being in Canada. The changes are subtle and the countryside is devoted to agriculture. The fields change in size and by the time I reached Cambridge they were huge and ripening.

The bus travelled slowly from one conurbation to the next, stopping in adorable stone villages and huge new towns like Milton Keynes. Agriculture filled the void between developments. The skies are huge and seem to grow as the hills lower and turn to ripples on the horizon.

It became a study of blossoming cloud and chasing thunderstorms. Two days of finding rain and running for shelter in the city and watching more of the same from the bus window.

Countryside from the bus

Snatches of views

Cambridgeshire

the road

This had been the first time I had traveled so widely in Newfoundland and Labrador. I am beginning to appreciate its size. Driving was such an experience. There was only one moose moment when a teenager ambled over the Trans Canada highway in front of me and was having too much fun on this asphalt thing to move away for some time.   

Sometimes the only way to fully understand a landscape is to move within it. I have seen so much road and so many trees. I've driven through strange boreal forest and arctic tundra. Landscapes supporting the thinest of berry bogs and raw moonlike rocks. 

the road along the bay of Islands

Bay of Islands 2

RV for two with trailed car

I am fascinated by the way other people travel. This RV was for only two and the car was trailed from the back.

bend in the road 

Newfoundland has so many long and straight roads.

Terracotta meets pink granite

I can't begin to describe how much I loved Labrador. To start with I found one of my favourite types of rock outcrop: made of pink granite.

pink granite coast

Red Bay was one of the most moving and powerful places I had seen. The Basque Whalers apparently concentrated their work on Saddle Island and there are remains of "try-works" (whale oil ovens) everywhere on the sheltered side of this tiny island. It is industry on a huge scale for the 16th century. 

remains of Basque terracotta tiles on Saddle Island from a roof of a caved in building  

The same terracotta tiles appear in Pasaia and other Basque ports. I am fascinated by the tangible link. The ties to history are so clear.

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I loved the contemporary culture too. People were so amazingly friendly and prepared to work with me.  I grew extremely fond of curious objects. Looking at everything with new eyes, I had never seen so many manufactured products with geographical directions on them or relishing their location. The water came from True North, the laundry liquid was from Down East, I washed my hands with North Woods soap. We drank bottled iceberg water called 80 degrees North (L'Eau d'Iceberg) but my favourite one of all so forgive the product placement was the soap called Kiss My Face. It's sold by American importers but I love the name.

True North Water