Painting the River Torridge - John White Abbott

This is a journey through searches of images and inspiration on painting the River Torridge.

My starting point is John White Abbott (1763-1851).  Abbott was an amateur painter who captured many places around his home town of Exeter in Devon, and one painting of the Torridge at Bideford.

He was a prolific painter and made many studies of places on Dartmoor and the surrounding area.

His teacher was Francis Towne (1739 or 1740 – 7 July 1816) a watercolour artist.  You can clearly see this making a comparison of their work. Towne worked by making many sketches and paintings of his landscapes (much like Turner).  Little is known about the artist and his techniques as he was a fairly unknown artist until the mid 20th century.  He left his watercolours to the British Museum, where they still are today.  He was at the forefront of the emergence of watercolours being used as an art medium in Britain.

 

Torridge from Source to Sea: Black Torrington Bridge to Sheepwash Bridge

 1st May 2021

I started out early in the morning so I could miss the rain forecast for later on in the afternoon.  Even though the sun was shining, it was a chilly start with a frost on the ground.  Yes the river was cold too!

Black Torrington Bridge bathed in the eary morning sun

I wasn't prepared for the stony riverbed covered in silt and algae - this made walking the river very slow going and I fell over a couple of times.  

The view downstream from Black Torrington Bridge.

Halfway through my walk I had already spotted trout fry  - my first sighting of fish in the river, squirrels and loads of water boatmen.  I stopped for a rest and was joined by some sheep taking a drink from the river.  Sweet Chestnut trees were in leaf, but on this side of the river the silver birch, planted in rows, had yet to show any green. Just a few metres down the river though birch trees in the same forest were well on their way, what a difference the change in orientation to the Sun! 

An inquisitive sheep!

The river here is so peaceful, the sounds are the rippling water, and birdsong interspersed with bleating lambs.  A nearby woodpecker was making its presence known and after scouring the trees for a while I spotted it high up, perched at an angle on the barch of a tree. 

An old barn on the river.

Eventually the peace was shattered by the sound of a car, and I knew I was near the end of my river walk.  But what a treat at Sheepwash Bridge!  Here dippers are diving and playing around amongst other birds swooping low over the river.  

Micro miffed to the beginning of a new chapter

 Shortly after my last blog post I lost my micro camper in a car crash and it's fair to say that the shock was quite hard hitting.  In April of 2018 I had the whole of the British Isles to explore, and by the summer all my plans were dashed.   My desire to explore diminished, and I found myself creating in a very different way.  My focus became needle felting.  I'm not sure why I didn't blog about it.  Maybe it was because the adventure wasn't outward looking, there were no trips out, no mediatative walks and much of my time was spent making funny little characters and selling them at local craft fairs.  

My last craft fair was in December 2019.  I was shattered from spending an average of 6 hours creating a small master piece:  trying to make enough figures to fill a craft stall was very time consuming.  In early 2020 I lost my motivation.  Then Covid. And had I booked up craft fairs and needle felted my heart out, they would all have been cancelled anyway.

What took over my heart in 2020?!  I'm not sure when it happened.  Probably during an afternoon pouring over an OS map of the area I live in, trying to find local attractions to explore, or thinking about the lack of swimming spots alond the River Torridge no doubt.  But this tiny acorn of an idea has grown into a wonderful artistic challenge.  I'm not sure where it will take me artistically, I am hoping my ferret brain and ridiculous meditative focus will alow me to explore, not only my immediate surroundings, but also new ways to express myself.   

I started this journey last year in covid conditions and this year will see me taking it to another level of focus - The River Torridge from Source to Sea.  A meditation on the countryside I live in.  An adventure on my door step.

Witchcraft in Boscastle

It's my first ever outing in my micro camper, and first camp out of 2018. Pip and I have been enjoying the early spring sun in Boscastle, and finally I got to go see the Museum of Witchcraft.

It's a fascinating, but disconcerting place. Full of the negative and superstitious. Human jealousy and rage bound in physical form with wax or clay and scraps of material. 

Scotland 2017 - Distilled out

What's better than visiting one whisky distillery? Why, visiting three distilleries all in one day! Yes, I managed to visit The Dalmore, Glenmorangie, and also Balblair on Saturday. 

At 5pm I was done and headed off to find a place to camp for the night. With the sun shining I set up the tent next to the Strathrory-Scotsburn drove road, and Pip and I had our dinner bathed in glorious sunshine. 

My night of camping was slightly marred by a hole in my mattress, but I was determined to spend at least one night in my tent. 

Cold, tired, and bleary eyed, Pip and I got up for a walk at 6am. It was cold. Cold enough for gloves and a woolly hat, but I didn't have either of those. Nevertheless, it was a beautiful start to the day, with mist rising over the Strathrory. Now it's definitely time for a cup of tea ...

Scotland 2017 - The way up

Pip and I left the house in high spirits, at 7pm Wednesday.  The first part of our journey was uneventful, just lots of traffic. At around 11pm we hit some snag spots, but the worst was to come just before reaching our first stopover at Stoke-on-Trent.  Huge road works in action on the M6. No matter, it only delayed our sleep for around an hour, oh and it meant there was more traffic about. 

We left Stoke-on-Trent at around 5am.  Feeling tired, I had to stop several times to rest, which meant my journey time was longer than anticipated. We arrived in Scotland at around 11am, with another 260 miles to go!

Looking over the Cromarty Firth

Finally we reached Alness at around 7pm.  Too late to do much exploring, but I spent a good half hour looking for a good place to stop for the night.  We ended up based near the Fyrish Monument (the less said about that the better) with stunning views over the Cromarty Firth.  

It is so silent here, something I was hoping to find, but never expected to so close to towns and villages. The only sound greeting us were the calls of buzzards echoing up the valley.

Tomorrow I'm going to do some journey planning, and then it's off to The Dalmore! 

King Cormorant: Titania's Poem

Since the summer I have been working on a sculpture based on the River Teign, and marking my first carving for three years.  After starting carving Titania I went for a long walk along the shores of the River Teign picking up sand, stones, bits of china and all manner of flotsam and jetsam, which have been incorporated into the sculpture.  The poem that accompanies the piece describes the walk:

King Cormorant

The roots of the oak tree
Reach down through the mud and shale,
Touching fragments of china cups,
Scattered shore-side;
Lying side-by-side with stones and shells,
All framed against the red sand.

Out in the river
The body of a dead tree
Holds King Cormorant.

I’m lost in overturning mud stained shells,
Snaked with worm tubes
And broken.
I’m lost in overturning bits of china,
Searching for one last piece.

In searching I realise that
These fragmented shells
Are just as beautiful
As perfectly formed spirals.

Retracing my steps
The tide has claimed its victim.
Again: limbs and all.

King Cormorant surveys the River Teign.