Mr Hodgson is in his 90's. He was my art teacher back in the early 80's. It was great to see Mr Hodsgon again when I visited him in 2018.

At school, Mr Hodgson made an impression on me with his quirky character. Sometimes he would play banjo in the classroom and I remember him creating a sculpture out of old chair legs using an arc welder, while we did our best to look away.

Lansdown Open Studios 2023

January 2022

New Hair prepared in 2021 for January 2022

Pete Garrard and his work "New Hair" at the end of 2021 and facing 2022

Pete Garrard met us for coffee late in 2021. I had seen "New Hair" and also noticed Pete's own hair on his social media and I was interested in how I might photograph him with his sculpture. 

Pete explained that his work has been impacted by the stress associated with lock down and that the sharp lines of "New Hair", a portrait of a black male rendered in sea blue, teal, kingfisher green, white and flesh pink are a response the challenges of living through this time. In the botanical space at Pete's house, together our heads face 2022 as 2021 and all that it brought are considered.

When we are confined to living inside,  perhaps we create a space that brings to us the things we are missing. Perhaps the freedom to be elsewhere encourages us to create that world in our own space.

Monica and the Portrait

Monica and I became friends in 1988. This photograph was taken in Winton one weekday during one of our conversations about the art of photography.

I seem to remember wanting to be able to approach a customer about taking his picture. At that time, I was cautious about how others might react too being asked and how they might feel about seeing the resulting pictures. 

My mother would say she hated every picture of herself she had ever seen. Her feelings about her own photograph made me want to create pictures that the people in them liked. 

A photograph made by someone else is perhaps never what we see ourself. The mirror gives us a mirror image and without the influence and persuasion of a photographer, the sitter will feel more content with the mirror or the 'selfie'. 

Implausibly Green

Last Summer, my son and I took a walk from Winchcombe towards Sudley Castle. I took a photograph of the light coming through the weeds at the side of this farm field. I was struck by the ruggedness of iron work against the green growth and the implausibly green colour that the camera has recorded. 

The green in these pictures has been embellished by the characteristics of my Panasonic camera's CCD. Such vibrant almost lime greens come from sunlight on chlorophyl green leaves.

These views reminds me of my grandparents house in Stratton on The Fosse and the views across local fields we saw as we travelled to their house from Coleford. The hyperreal green in these images somehow brings back, in some dream state, the memories of these views.

Lechampton Hill May 2020

 My son and I began walking together some time back. This walk on Cleeve Hill offers views across the surrounding landscape with its rolling green hills.

Before climbing from the old quarry car park, we are faced with this rock face. Dramatic scars of quarrying remind us of a relatively recent history. 

Amidst rolling hills, green land is under our feet is as we tread within the steps of earlier settlers. 

Ilfracombe, The Land of Milk and Honey

In the last week of July 2020, we revisited our place of 'milk and honey', a misnomer of our own creation perhaps, dubbed idealistically from our first visit, in search of escape. This second visit came just over a year from our first and at a time when we are experiencing life in a pandemic. 

Thinly veiled from view, Ilfracombe wears its scars of decline; behind some of the resorts natural and manmade beauty. Off peak and beyond the green and grey, the blue and warm red of hills, water, sandstone and slate, gift shops and cheap hotels begin to crumble leaving benefit hostels to claim their space. Still the glimpses of its finer features, the sea against stone, water racing against beached monoliths, the green hills that interrupt the view of sea and the patchwork of victorian seaside properties against a harbour are the greater - impervious and beyond mire. 

We returned, also, to the Dorchester Hotel. This little bed and breakfast, perched in a victorian terrace on the steep hill that takes its course up out of the town to the South, was as friendly and welcoming as we remembered. Large bay windows gave us a view, from the breakfast room of the terrace and road below.

Lee Bay - 28th July 2020

We returned to Lee Bay; this time, on foot, over the green, 'roller coaster' path, ascending the Victorian Zig-Zag path to the top of Ilfracombe Torrs then following the land hugging grass and rock outcrops of the South Coast Path. A sea of tidy grass  flat with expansive views and the occasional sight of cattle grazing in fields to the side of our path.

After the green highlands of the cliff top, we arrived at the houses that mark the road down towards the village of Lee and our feet began the descent down through the narrow hedge lined lane. Butterflies and insects cling to the greenery and fly through the air in numbers we don't see at home.

The valley of the fuchsia's welcomes us again with its quiet greenness and its peace. The village has a church and a pub. Its church has a shop that sells local art and crafts. We visited and Steph bought a postcard art pad.

Many people were at the bay. On this second visit, the tide was in. We sat on the pebbled beach to have lunch and drink tea from our camping stove. The rock pools and slabs of fractured weathered rock were less accessible on this visit but no less like a visit to another; primordial planet.

 

Clinging to the scars of coastal erosion, a green tree stands.

Rock, grey and silver, polished by sea and air and shaped to stand still against the blue sky,

stand before our feet and dwarf us.

Saunton Sands - 29th July 2020

Along the coast from Woolacaombe, Saunton Sands is an expanse of sand and dune that attracts sun seeking holidaying people in numbers. We took our space on the beach with just a picnic blanket between us and the sand. I took my feet and legs out to explore the dunes and paddle in the sea.

Combe Martin - 31st July 2020

On our last day, we travelled northwards along the coast too Combe Martin. On this sunny, warm morning the beach was busy and we took our camping chairs down to a spot where we could look out to sea and watch the people who were enjoying the water. Some people were taking borrowed kayaks out to sea while others swam in the protected harbour pool. The beach is a tidal sand with rock pools to each side of the access to the harbour. After paddling in the water, I explored the rock pools and caught sight of a distant cave that I couldn't quite access. 

As a last moment of this holiday, the boats, sand and water and the pleasure being shared here by so many from sand, sun and water was a joyful way to finish our trip.