Debbie Lyddon class at Wells Next The Sea

Oh My Word.  What a great class.

Cherry was a fantastic host.  We ate well, slept well, worked well.

Liz and I visited Oxburgh Hall on the way up to Norfolk

Liz and Cherry on the beach.

Debbie's inspiring collection of detritus/artworks

We started with a sight walk, where we walked a short way along the riverfront, spent time looking at things far and close, and collected a small amount of appealing detritus.  We had small hand-made sketchbooks in which to make brief visual notes of what we had seen.

With the detritus we collected, we pressed them into a slab of clay, pressed a bottomless yogurt pot over (like a pastry cutter), poured in plaster and left to set.  When dry (2 hours?) we lifted off the yogurt pot, peeled off the clay, and had the most amazing relief plaster cast.  I had deep relief - frayed rope; medium relief - offcut of string netting; and low relief - leaves.  Astonishing detail.

We did a sound walk.  This was eye-opening.  We sat and listened to sounds on the riverfront.  We made marks for the sounds.  We considered what we heard; from what direction; moving or stationary.  Other people; nature; mechanical; silences or pauses.  Rhythms/patterns; high/low pitch, sound textures.  Whispers, variations in volume; near/far.    Cherry, Liz and I were only 20m apart but we came up with many different sounds, and all interpreted the sounds in different marks.

We went back to the studio, and experimented with ink/pencil/other media to try out ways of drawing our sounds.  We picked 3, and drew them across a long strip of textured paper.  My sounds were the clanking of ropes against metal masts; a seagull scream; the circular saw from a nearby boatyard.  The clanking ropes were drawn by using the edge of a small notebook, dipped in Quink ink, and printed using only the edge of the page.  Gave lovely irregular lines, looking like ropes hitting a mast.  The Seagull scream was a bright orange upward moving line, repeating with the inflexion of the cry. The circular saw was painted with a manky brush, twisted to emulate the movement of the saw.  My sounds were interpreted with use of gesture as well.  Our test pages were used to cover greyboard for the covers.  We made concertinas of our long page by folding in half, and repeatedly folding into the crease to get the exact position right.  A tip was to hold the left hand page up at right angles to the table, and fold the righthand sheet into the previous fold.  Easy when demonstrated.

We went out and drew the covers on dinghys to identify how the covers accommodated the mast and other extrusions.  We looked at the eyelets, which inspire Debbie.  She is interested in the protection from the elements, so covers, protective surfaces and weathering appeal to her.  We painted linen, made iron eyelets and stitched them onto the cloth.  Then tied them onto a pole on the quayside and left them for the tide to soak and rust them the next day.  We waxed our cloth, and made them into little protective bags for our plaster casts.

Brilliant two days.  I came away very inspired for my idea to be artist-in-residence at the gravel works.  The soundscape could be fascinating to work up some sketchbooks.  Also the idea about protection from the environment.  What is used and how.

Cherry's collection

Liz's collection

My collection