The Wanderer Returns

Wheal Coates, St. Agnes, Cornwall

Well, I am back at last. I had intended to update this post last Wednesday but while I was on holiday I took nearly 450 photographs. Sorting these and the notes and sketches, as well as making ‘contact sheets’, has kept me busy during most of this week.

The area of Cornwall I visited, near St. Agnes in the north of the county, is beautiful. It is fairly wild country littered with the remains of past tin and copper mining. There are the remains of many old engine houses, like the one in the picture above, where the pumps, which removed water from the mine workings, were located. There is one mine still working at Blue Hills Streaming Tin where the full processes can be seen during one of the guided tours of the site. This is well worth a visit and details can be found at http://www.bluehillstin.com/ Much of the more inland area is farmed and the produce is available in local shops; the local cheeses particularly are a must to try.

The coast is very rugged and rocky with high cliffs and steep sided valleys leading to the most delightful sandy beaches. I spent long periods of time photographing the scenery and the sea hoping to catch the precise moments when the waves were breaking across the rocks. Some of the time I was successful but at others the shot didn’t quite come off. The weather was very changeable with some rain and very strong winds. One afternoon I was lucky enough to be walking along the coast path when a full arc rainbow occurred which stretched from the cliff top ahead of me across the bay, finally disappearing into the sea to my right. A truly magnificent and unusual sight – well I hadn’t seen a rainbow quite like this one before.

The beauty of digital photography is that if the shot doesn’t quite meet the requirement it can be deleted and another attempt made without the waste of a costly frame of film.

Many of the photographs were taken in groups of three or sometimes more with the intention of turning them into panoramas. Once the pictures are sorted and the notes and sketches collated I shall begin a series of paintings, which I hope will capture the way I feel about this part of Cornwall. I would like to begin painting very soon but now that the weather has begun to improve it may have to wait as the garden is in need of much tidying before the winter sets in.

My garden is used to grow a variety of vegetables and to make things easier I made a number of raised beds about nine years ago. Now they all need repairing and in some cases completely rebuilding and it is better to do that now rather than to leave things until the spring. Then of course there is the general tidying up that needs to be done like removing all the old plants and shredding the woody parts. The shreddings I use on the paths between the raised beds so that during the winter months it is possible to get to the various parts of the garden without too much mud accumulating on the boots.

None of this has much to do with art but it all needs to be done and priorities have to be made and adhered to. So for a little while the fun of painting will have to wait – unless of course the weather changes.

That's it until next week. Take care.

Tony