The Royal Forest of Dean and the Wye Valley

I’ve spoken about the Forest of Dean before, it’s a place that has captured my heart so vividly and inspired so many of my drawings that I find it’s quite often in my thoughts. This November I was able to take a last minute trip to the Forest of Dean with my little family, a Monday to Friday break staying in a cabin on the very site that my parents used to take me to on weekend caravan holidays.

As is always the case whether it be a whistle stop day trip or a longer stay I inevitably take hundreds of photographs, the golden hues of the forest in autumn sing to me like silver does to a magpie. The smell of coal smoke is intoxicating, the familiarity of the woodland trails feels comforting, despite the labyrinthine pathways it feels impossible to get lost in certain places, the route is well worn in my memory.

We started the holiday with a trip to Puzzlewood, somewhere that I don’t recall from childhood. It’s been on my list of places to see for years but there never seems enough time or schedules don’t align with when we’re in the vicinity. We hotfooted from home in Hampshire to Puzzlewood in time for our 11am arrival slot. My in-laws had arrived in the forest the day before and met us at Puzzlewood. We walked into the ancient wood and were immediately surrounded by mossy green rocks, twisty branches and tree roots, fungi of all shapes and sizes and slippery steps leading to rustic bridges over crevasses. Climbing and descending the steps was a slow and considered affair, I felt a little like Bambi on ice at some points as the slippery damp stone steps meant clinging on to whatever you could to keep your legs from giving way.

It is said that JRR Tolkien visited this very wood and was inspired so much that he used elements from what he’d seen in his fantasy books, I can see perfectly well why. It feels as though suddenly the trees might come to life, so characterful and warped are they. Fairies could easily be hiding in the nooks and crannies between rocks and branches, moss providing a comfortable seat to rest. Magical is a word I often overuse when it comes to woodland but it certainly does suit Puzzlewood. The maze-like paths twist and turn, meander up and down over bridges and by caves until you reach a little gate, signalling the end and a return to the Muggle world (yes, supposedly JK Rowling who grew up close to the Forest of Dean also visited Puzzlewood and was inspired by it when writing The Forbidden Forest in the Harry Potter series).

After a turn chasing my son around the willow maze which reminded me of the final episode of True Detective season one (niche reference) we drove to Cannop ponds and walked around the lakes.

The next day we drove to Symonds Yat Rock in the Wye Valley. My memories of Symonds Yat from childhood are a little warped, kind of strange and dream-like. There are rosy toned photographs of a four or five year old me, sat in a canoe with my older half brother sat behind me on the River Wye, bright pink flowers next to the mooring posts by The Saracens Head. Remembering walking from the rock to the river, being encouraged to take shortcuts down steep muddy banks by my dad which resulted in slipping and being stabbed in the leg by a splintered branch. Feeling like where we parked the car at Symonds Yat Rock and where The Saracens Head were were two completely different places, not related at all, a million miles apart. It’s strange how you can mis-remember a place and how funny thoughts from being young stay with you, now whenever I think of Symonds Yat and whenever I visit it I can’t help but think of those hazy muddled memories. We took a walk to the viewpoint and ate our lunch on the stone steps, we then did the Symonds Yat Rock loop walk which dips down into the valley slightly and then back up again. Once back at the carpark which is actually quite picturesque in the autumn we played in the dried leaves.

On the third day we walked in Nagshead Nature Reserve, just across the road from our cabin. It was a drizzly day, rain in autumn just seems to intensify the colours of the turning leaves. Mist hung in the air slightly giving the forest an atmosphere, mysterious and a little foreboding. We were just about the only people on the trail, worn out from carrying our little one and in awe of the beauty of the golden forest. I always think of Nagshead as being one of the most beautiful parts of the Forest of Dean, the colours seem almost surreal. After our loop walk we met my in-laws for a delicious pub lunch in Alvington.

On our final day we all met at the Sculpture Trail at Beechenhurst Lodge for a walk taking in all 16 of the sculptures, although annoyingly we did manage to overlook one. The Sculpture Trail sits steadfast in my memory. A place of wonder where I can round a corner and come face to face with a tree that I’ve lovingly observed or a landscape of pathways that I’ve painstakingly recreated in pen. It’s the one place that we always revisit whenever we come to the forest.

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Dream Art Destinations

Me and Water Lilies by Claude Monet at Museum of Modern Art, New York in 2017

This week on Instagram, Kate Bryan the art historian and judge on Portrait Artist of the Year gave a round up of her five dream art destinations, places she would transport herself to if she could to visit notable art works. It got me thinking about where my dream art destinations would be. Where in the world would I transport myself to if money were no object, covid-19 were not in existence and I had no responsibilities at home?

1. Monet’s Water Lily triptych in MoMA, New York. The one that started it all. I’ve spoken about this painting before, many times in fact. I first saw the painting on an A-Level college trip in 2005. I was taking Ceramics and Photography AS-Levels at the time and thought I might do photography at university because although I wasn’t particularly good at photography I really enjoyed it and liked the processes involved. It was a short trip and my first time going to the United States. We crammed a lot of art in to the time, visits to multiple Chelsea galleries, the Met and Whitney. What stuck with me most and set me off on a different path was the Monet in the MoMA. I’d never seen an impressionist painting as big before. The dreamy colours, the brush strokes. It pulled me in and mesmerised me. I’ve been back to see it twice since then, each time sitting with it for ages, hypnotised. I would book a plane ticket to New York just to sit in front of it again.

2. Monet at Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris. Following on from the Monet at the MoMA, a gallery that I would love to see inside is Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris. Home to eight of Monet’s huge water lily landscape paintings, hung one after another in two oval shaped rooms so that the viewer is completely surrounded by beautiful compositions inspired by Monet’s garden in Giverny. I visited Paris on my art and design foundation year but wasn’t able to see inside l’Orangerie or Le Museé d’Orsay which is one of my regrets, within reach but just missed due to a tight schedule.

3. Tracey Emin and Egon Schiele at The Leopold, Vienna. One I’d need a time machine for would be ‘Where I Want To Go’ which took place in the summer of 2015 at The Leopold in Vienna. I’ve been extremely fortunate in that I have visited The Leopold before and I have seen Schiele’s incredible work close up. To see his intimate drawings alongside Tracey Emin’s work would be wonderful. I’ve seen Emin’s work in various places, at several Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions and at her solo show ‘The Last Great Adventure Is You’ at White Cube Gallery. Emin draws inspiration from her personal experiences, themes of love and loss. Her ways of working span painting and drawing, neon, sculpture, writing - as the saying goes ‘a jack of all trades’ - I’d go so far as saying she’s a master of them too. There are parallels in Emin and Schiele’s work which would be fascinating to witness in person.

4. Michelangelo at The Sistine Chapel, Vatican City. This one is lifted directly from Kate’s list because the more she spoke about it the more bereft I felt for not seeing it. I find it quite inconceivable that Michelangelo was able to produce such an incredible piece of work, quite frankly the scale and detail blows my mind and I haven’t even seen it in person. My art history knowledge is quite lacking really. Despite having Fine Art BA and MA degrees I have trouble retaining art history knowledge especially if it’s pre-19th century. I feel like seeing the Sistine Chapel would ignite a passion for art of the Renaissance period. Aside from seeing The Sistine Chapel I would also just love to visit Rome as I have never been and it does feel strange to have visited so many places on my travels but to have not been somewhere so culturally significant.

5. Cy Twombly at Tate Modern. Again I’d have to jump into a time machine for this one but I really wish I could have seen the Cycles and Seasons exhibition by Cy Twombly at Tate Modern in the summer of 2008. I have the catalogue which I picked up from Waterstones one day when I was fairly unfamiliar with Twombly’s work. The photographs of the expressive and scratchy paintings inside the book really spoke to me and I’ve had a passion for his work ever since. I have seen Twombly’s work in person before but I would love to see a whole collection of his work in one space so that I might be completely absorbed by it, with eyes tracing the deep lines scratched into the surface, trying to make out the writing scrawl.

So, there are five places that I would love to go to see beautiful art. Of course there are countless more museums that I’d love to revisit or see for the first time and I hope one day I will get to go. Alongside a regular ‘bucket list’ I have an art ‘bucket list’ and I feel extremely fortunate in that many places I have already been to (mostly on college and university art trips). The more art you see in person the more your life is enriched in my opinion. Where would you love to go to or revisit to see art?

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The Golden Forest

I’ve just returned from a short break to the Forest of Dean, a place I have mentioned many times before. It’s my ‘childhood happy place’ and somewhere that holds a lot of treasured memories. This years visit was particularly special as my partner and I went in celebration of our anniversary - 12 years together. It was also our last little getaway before our baby arrives in January. Not only was it special for those two reasons but also because the autumn colours were so vibrant this year; richer and deeper gold, orange and yellow hues than I’ve ever seen before. It felt as though the trees were really putting on a show for us, to make our escape even more precious.

Last years trip to the Forest of Dean inspired many drawings and was the catalyst for starting the woodland studies series which is ongoing and a project that I particularly enjoy working on. It seems a shame that I rarely work with colour nowadays as this time it wasn’t so much the tiny details of the woodland that captured my attention but the incredible copper colours. Perhaps this will signal a change in my practice, from intricate monochromatic drawings in pen to abstracted landscapes focused on colour? Only time will tell.

I hope you enjoyed these photographs taken by my partner Craig Pendrill. The Forest of Dean is located in Gloucestershire on the English/Welsh border.

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