Countryside or Concrete?

This is a painting I've been working on depicting a storm over the Arun valley. It's mixed media, full size 45cm x 33cm, though I may format it to a smaller size, perhaps a square. It's taken a while as I've been struggling with it somewhat and putting it to one side for weeks at a time, with my attention on outdoor and other artwork. There are meteorological elements in there, including weather maps with deep low pressure systems like those that rammed much of England and Wales the winter before last. However, it's really about dark clouds of a political kind: more about the Arundel Bypass later in this entry.

Further to my last posting here, I have finished reading about Charles Rangeley-Wilson's lost river in High Wycombe. A thought provoking and sad story coming based on thorough research. Dedication and perseverance in his sifting through the local archives, dealings with the local council and his wanders around the area in all weathers from snow to heatwave. Near the end, he said hopes for undoing at least some of the culverting imposed in the mid-1960s were dashed with the building of a new shopping centre right over it. Apparently, when the opportunity came to regenerate the area during the 2000s, uncovering the river was mooted but it came down to first costs and profit motive - the developers deemed it too expensive. As that was where the money was, the local authority had no choice but to go along with them. As we've seen elsewhere, this involved discussions / meetings closed off to the public.  All things we're seeing time and again, with the same mistakes repeated time and again.

Earlier this week, I had a sketching session along the River Arun between the Black Rabbit and South Stoke. It was a lovely day with warm spring sunshine. See Sketches along West Sussex Rivers in my Water and Art blog. The valley here is a haven from the busy roads surrounding it. Thankfully there is a pelican crossing near Arundel railway station, but this part of the A27 was oppressive, both when I arrived around 11:00am and when I headed home around 6pm, during the evening peak hour. Amid the unrelenting streams of heavy traffic, were numerous large heavy lorries which made it feel all the more oppressive. Accessing the Burpham road from here on foot is now nigh impossible to do safely as there is no footway across the railway bridge on the north side of the road. Now, people (lots of them) will argue all this as a case for a new bypass to the south. Understandable, but only when considering getting from A-B as quickly as possible, ignoring the wider consequences. Ignoring, too past experience showing bigger roads drawing in more traffic from a larger area, attendant development, with traffic congestion returning before too long. At Newbury, apparently, this took just six years.

There is now a website dedicated to the Arundel Bypass: A27 Arundel Bypass Neighbourhood Committee - http://www.arundelbypass.co.uk/

I hope they don't mind me sharing their photo they recently put up on Facebook, promoting the public meeting in Arundel on 27th April. Regrettably, I can't attend, ironically because of transport issues - evening meetings are harder to  get to / from, even closer to home. I could identify very well with the saga recently shared on Facebook last weekend. Amongst other things, this included another footpath dumping people alongside the busy dual carriageway, with a dangerous crossing. Away from the main urban areas - London and the coastal strip - getting around by public transport is at best tricky, at worst nigh impossible, and has been for decades, buses having been insidiously cut back.

Finally, I know there are lots of other issues for people to think about - among them healthcare, national security, worries about further cuts to public services after the forthcoming general election. Even so, I'm disappointed that transport and the environment are not bigger issues, even though they affect us all. Questioning the basic premise of cars / trucks being king and thinking beyond first costs and profit motive is long overdue.

Roads, Rivers, Lost Rivers

Chichester – River Lavant, Lost Rivers and the A27 Great Divide

 Sunday 12th April

The Awakenings exhibition at Oxmarket, finished this afternoon so I headed to Chichester on the train (the 09:47) with a view to sketching. I had a good few hours around Mid and East Lavant sitting by the stream and sketching (sketch above). Originally, I intended to go to Dell Quay near the head of the Chichester Channel, fancying sketching in the Chichester Harbour before the algal scum took hold for the summer. The River Lavant comes out into the Chichester Channel in this area, though not the route it would have taken naturally. This was the first time I’d tried walking southwards out of the city centre, other than along the Chichester Canal, which comes out to the south at Birdham. The outlet / last half mile or so of that spoilt by super-marina with lots of posh yachts. Until they see sense with roads in West Sussex it will be the last. 

Though Chichester city centre and the nearby Downs are well served with footpaths, cycle paths and bridleways, the A27 is a barrier here for anyone outside a car / truck, blocking off easy, safe access to Chichester Harbour.  Dell Quay looks easier from Fishbourne,  the station south of the Great Divide, but not so many trains stop there. There’s no straightforward link with the Canal path either. The only way apparent way across the road from the map was via the footpath near the Westgate Leisure Centre – pelican crossing here over the A259 and a footway from Waitrose and the train station. Crossed the railway bridge and followed the path south through an industrial estate, across a minor (but not quiet) road running through the middle (an exit to this from the roundabout we off  the A27 when we come to Chichester by car. Across this road, there was a tired, fading public footpath sign to Apuldram, so I knew this was the path, but it was very narrow running between two warehouses. It didn’t look well used and it disappeared into scrubland, I didn’t feel entirely comfortable here on my own. It then dumped me alongside the dual carriageway. I  thought there would be a subway. Not fancying J-walking and even less doing so again on the way back when it would be busier, I gave up on the idea and turned round. Usually with trunk roads and motorways there one or a footbridge. This is another black mark in my book for West Sussex County Council who are in bed with the road and Gatwick2 lobbies.

I then wasted sketching time on this sunny Sunday morning retracing my steps back to the city centre and northwards to Lavant, also passing some of its artificial distributary ditches near the multi-storey car park and A259. From the Westgate Leisure Centre I walked north, crossing the main channel of the Lavant near Chichester College and then through residential streets on the west side of the city. I eventually joined the Centurion Way near some bungalows off the Sherborne Road. I followed this through Mid-Lavant and cut across to the bridleway near the wells / waterworks.  I settled down by the stream here to have my packed lunch and sketch, enjoying the relative peace and quiet and looking into the clear water. 

Another sketch of the Lavant (right)

Later, I followed the Bridleway to the Sheepwash Lane footbridge over the stream and sketched in this area before heading back into the city to collect my paintings just after half-four. The stream was still flowing fairly well, though the water level has been dropping throughout March and early April, including during the past fortnight. Spurred on by the warmer, brighter weather last week, spring growth is ensuing vigorously, with weeds beginning to grow in the stream channel. This accelerates the fall in water level, increasingly choking the channel until it dries up completely.  I always have mixed feelings about the spring. Like everyone else, I enjoy the lighter evenings and brighter days, the fresh greenery and the spring flowers. Yet with this river levels diminish, especially in smaller streams and all the more with the apparent general trend to warmer, earlier and drier springs. So far the pace of this spring has been slower than last year’s. Nonetheless there have been several dry, anticyclonic  episodes since December, with March dry until the last week. Beside this ephemeral, part-time winterbourne, then, I was very conscious of its season for this year drawing to an end. The big exception in recent years, of course being three years ago: the inspiration for the larger painting – Stream Awakening – in the Oxmarket exhibition - see Spring Exhibitions 2015 in Water and Art.

The Lavant along Sheepwash Lane - willow tree coming into leaf

And so, to Lost Rivers:

I have started reading Silt Road – The Story of a Lost River by Charles Rangeley Wilson (2013). The Lost River here is the Wye – not the moody one in Herefordshire and Wales or the one in the Peak District of Derbyshire. This is a much lesser known, and yet another clearly very much forgotten chalky tributary of the River Thames, in addition to the Lost Rivers of London . It sounds much like the River Lavant. It issues from springs in the Chilterns in Buckinghamshire and gives it name to the town of  High Wycombe and village of West Wycombe just upstream. It joins the Thames near Cookham. Though it looks from the map as if it sees at least some daylight in its lower reaches to the south, its upper reaches for much of the way through West and High Wycombe it is banished underground via culverts and pipes, just as the Lavant is through much of Chichester. Even where it is open to the light, it’s course, appearance and the general feel of it has been severely compromised by urban development, like so many smaller rivers in densely populated areas such as southern England. First the came the factories and attendant residential developments, followed by the modern urban sprawl and road network. All credit to the author for his dedication in seeking out this lost river amid busy towns and roads. He remembers seeing as a child a picture of the river, running clear and free in an already bygone rural setting and imagines it running completely free through the valley prior to an human intrusion. Compare and contrast with photograph beneath motorway (M40). A poignant quote from the second chapter, as he views the river – already corralled near a car park – disappearing underground through a grate, “As the water falls, the river speaks…beyond this rush [down through the grate] … the sound of water lost to a man-made drain. The sound of a river ceasing to be a river.”. Being anthropomorphic, I imagine desperate pleas and perhaps a scream of “No….!”. Later he speaks of the old London-Oxford road running along the valley floor through the town as becoming the new river with traffic instead of water flow.

I’d had all this very much in mind during the attempts to head out to Dell Quay this morning, roughly following the Lavant through its artificially culverted, then corralled course through Chichester, then getting lost beneath the railway, roads, warehouses and dual carriageway. Smaller rivers are easier to lose than large ones amid urban sprawl, but it can happen at least to some degree anywhere. There’s also the physical, at least temporary loss when the water ceases to flow during droughts. Rivers and the landscape have evolved throughout history as people have exploited them. Nonetheless, a strong case for any new development to be as sustainable as possible, enabling future generations to enjoy rivers as well. All the more in a densely populated area.  In West Sussex they should start with the Great Divide.

The latest on the A27 / Arundel bypass:

The latest news from SCATE is a “gaping hypocritical flaw” in transport ambitions, with virtuous aims of encouraging more cycling, walking and car-free travel vs Bring-on-the-Roads!

Simon Gray, Readers’ Letters to West Sussex County Times, 5^th April

 http://www.wscountytimes.co.uk/news/letters/letter-cycle-and-road-campaign-conflict-1-6666938

Kay Wagland, Readers’ Letters, LittlehamptonGazette, 10th April

South CoastAlliance for Transport and the Environment (SCATE) 

http://scate.org.uk/

My Previous entries along the A27:

Across the Adur (Shoreham)

A27 - Bad Tidings, 24/03/15

Continuing along the A27..., 25/02/15

Storms of Protest..., 23/01/15

Mixed News from Sussex, 09/12/14

Easter Monday around Shoreham and the Adur

Lunch stop along the Adur near the South Downs Way crossing

Another Easter / early spring bank holiday and another train trip to Shoreham-by Sea and the Adur (6th April). This time, I took my Literary Man with me (aka Munros Man / Cycling Man / Chief Chartered Engineer who has subsequently developed a love of books and poetry). He wondered why he’d missed out on this as we headed towards the Adur near the Ropetackle Arts Centre, the tide on the River Adur beginning to come in and gather pace over the mudbanks. Gliders took to the air from the airfield across the river.

We walked along the east side of Adur valley as far as the South Downs Way footbridge; and back along the west side as far as the Old Shoreham Bridge. We got back in Shoreham mid-afternoon, amid the bank holiday crowds on the warmest day of the year so far – more outlets selling ice creams, please to break the apparent drought in such provision. We then crossed the Adur Ferry Bridge and wandered along the narrow pathway along the southwest side of the harbour past the - “quirky or plain barking” as Literary Man put it - houseboats.

Along our way along the river, I did some quick sketches: the rotting timber skeleton of the boat near Shoreham Bridge I’ve drawn before, then later views of the Downs on the western side of the valley. I didn’t really intend these to be picturesque, my attention focused on a pig farm occupying a field on the hillside, next to it a broad grassy strip which I thought looked a bit like multi-lane highway, albeit in green instead of Tarmac. 

Not surprising I made this analogy, given the various roads crossing and running along the lower Adur valley between Shoreham and Upper Beeding.

Between the railway and the remains of the cement works, two contrasting bridges: Old Shoreham Bridge, the quiet one for walkers and cyclists (above), the timber supports reflected in the water despite the rising tide. Then just upstream the noisy one carrying the A27, here a fast trunk road. 

The foot and cycle paths either side of the river went under it. Immediately east of it, the underside of the A27-A283 intersection with a roundabout at valley level and flyovers carrying the sliproads on / off the dual carriageway near a cliff above the river. At a higher level again the A27 ran through a chalk cutting in the hillside. Another bridge carrying a minor road north across the Downs up towards Truleigh Hill l. It all seemed overly complex and expansive considering it involved just two A’roads, clearly to ease the flow of traffic on / off the dual carriageway as quickly as possible. There are spaghetti junctions, cloverleaf junctions. This one had a bit like both when viewed from above. A short line of cones near the fence on the south side of the bridge. Alongside the westbound slipway, three single chevrons indicated keep left.

This is exactly the sort of thing they are now threatening in the neighbouring lower Arun valley – see previous posts about the A27 and Arundel bypass.  

This morning the traffic on the A27 was relatively light, especially the lorries. The A283 seemed busier and was almost as noisy; admittedly amplified as it ran at the foot of the hill on the east side of the river gap. As it ran north-south along the valley the noise with us throughout. It crossed the river about half a mile north of the SDW footbridge near Upper Beeding, before tracking to the north of the Downs towards Storrington and Pulborough (the same road crossing the Arun next to the Old Stopham Bridge).

Sussex Road Links

A27 Alarm - The local residents' campaign to tame the A27

Highways to Hell - TheAcorn 

South CoastAlliance for Transport and the Environment (SCATE) 

My Previous entries (roads):

A27 - Bad Tidings, 24/03/15

Continuing along the A27..., 25/02/15

Storms of Protest..., 23/01/15

Mixed News from Sussex, 09/12/14

My previous entries (Shoreham and the Adur)

Easter Sunday Morning on Caesar's Camp

On Easter Sunday morning (5th April), we walked to  Caesar’s Camp from the Rowhills area near Aldershot. The rain on Good Friday and the, dull, chilly Easter Saturday gave way to a spell of brighter, warmer, more springlike weather. The sun broke through at times, though it still fairly cloudy and misty. Gorse was flowering on the heathland and slopes of the Caesar's Camp hillside. We sat on the benches at the top of the hill near the pine tree - though sorry to see both benches were in in memoriam to young men: one 1980-2002, the other 1986-2004. This was a hill fort at one time, though I don’t know whether Emperor Caesar camped here himself. We could see eastwards along the line of the North Downs as far as Guildford and just made out the Cathedral. To the north was Farnborough Airfield. On a clear day, the view extends as far as the Chiltern Hills and London, with the arch of Wembley Stadium, evolving towers in central London and Canary Wharf towers further east.

I particularly wanted another look at the view in the middle distance as it was relevant to two of the prize winning paintings in the FAS show - see previous entry about exhibtions visited this Easter.  Firstly, Jackie Rennie’s large square canvas depicting the view from Caesar’s Camp focusing on the middle distance, with everything further back fading towards the horizon. Purple flowers on slope in foreground, irises perhaps. 

Near the entrance to the gallery, Alan Ryder’s Gone But Not Forgotten. This was a large vertical oil painting on canvas of the Cargate Water Tower off Lower Church Lane, Aldershot rendered in pale grey against a blue background. Though not pretty, the tower was a fairly distinctive local landmark around Aldershot until its demolition in late 2008 / early 2009. It was visible from the Weybourne Road looking north towards Aldershot; the A31 Hogs Back road; and eastwards from Caesar’s Camp. It was built out of steel and prone to rust, though that wasn’t obvious from a distance. It comprised round hut at the top with a broad conical roof. There were four narrow legs and a narrow spiral stairwell in the centre. It was still there in summer 2008 when I watched the Farnborough Airshow from Caesar’s Camp – Uncle Ivan lives in the water tower? Is he a fish? Come to think of it, I had registered it not being there after our move in 2009, just not consciously. It was only now, after seeing the painting,that I thought to look. Similarly, with my mind on something else, I didn’t initially register the big tree felled near my parents’ garden last month. 

The Chief Chartered Engineer also reflected on the changing scene around Farnborough airfield, for better or worse. The old Pyestock site was flattened completely around the turn of this century, with a new layout of roads in the area. What was once the main site of RAE Farnborough has virtually all gone now. One thing it brought home was just how outdated our current copy of OS Explorer map 145 now is.

We walked on, before heading back to endulge in Easter Sunday lunch.

More on the Cargate Water Tower and Alan Ryder's work:

http://www.gethampshire.co.uk/news/local-news/water-tower-recorded-for-posterity-5355037

http://www.gethampshire.co.uk/news/local-news/landmark-axe-poised-5353060

British Water Tower Appreciation Society

Easter Exhibitions Visited

Chichester – Good Friday 3^rd April

Oxmarket Centre of Arts – Awakenings

See also Water and Art:

http://artywater.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/spring-exhibitions-2015.html 

This open exhibition was in main gallery, though only filling about two thirds of it. The rest of the space was filled by Don Noble’s Sussex Wild Plants, I liked the Neanderthal collage on the end wall and the bird / nest collagraph - collage. I had two paintings here: both mixed media on box canvas. Both looked better than they did at home, benefiting from the bigger space in the gallery. The smaller one (40cm square) depicted spring on the South Downs (right), inspired by numerous walks and sketching sessions. The larger one (50cm square) was Stream Awakening. Again the season was spring, but the Awakening I had in mind here was the unexpected, unseasonal revival of the River Lavant in late spring 2012. See A Surprise Return of the Lavant, June 2012.

I liked the Sussex Wild Plants, too. These were along the Arun valley between Amberley and Billingshurst  Teasels, grasses / reeds.

Wood engravings at Pallant House

Leon Underwood and the Brook Green School of Painting

Leon Underwood 1920s - WW2 – his focus was on figures. A mix of drawings, oil paintings, etchings, linocut, wood engraving and sculpture. What particularly attracted me to Pallant House, however was the exhibition of wood engravings and linocuts in the meeting room across the second floor: the Brook Green School which Underwood founded. Among its members in the 1930s were  Blair Hughes-Stanton  engravings all involving figures and Gertrude Hermes. Both were fine wood engravers, but I know the latter was a big influence on my father's work. There was a mix of figure work and landscape here, including some relatively large blocks as wood engravings go (30cm upwards). I was particularly  taken with her depictions of water lilies in two of the works here. Then there was Thames Near Source. This looked very unusual. I didn’t realise there was a horse pregnant with a foal in there until I had another look at it in my father’s book this evening. It came from on a poem, apparently. Also vortices, flow.

Undercurrents – large, vertical format with deep pool. Sun at top shining into water. Figures bathing. Whirlpool vortex spiralling downwards towards big shark like fish in the darker depths.

Among their permanent collection I saw they had brought out three of Ivon Hitchens's oil paintings, including his Sussex River Near Midhurst, presumably the Rother. Abstract made up of bold, broad, blocky brushstrokes. Long format / double square. Larger than I'd remembered. Painting with block of cadmium red worked well - clifftop maybe, though the one downstairs with the hut amongst greenery looked very dull. This can’t have been intentional. Another case, surely of oils dulling with time, particularly the darker colours?

Farnham Art Society 68^th Annual Spring Exhibition, James Hockey and Foyer Galleries, UCA, Falkiner Road, Farnham – Easter weekend 4^th – 5^th April

I stewarded here on Easter Saturday and returned on Easter Sunday afternoon briefly with my Literary Man and brother’s folk. The exhibition ran from 1st - 12th April.

I was very pleased to have had two of my paintings accepted for this exhibition: a long format view of the Severn Bridges from Beachley Point at low tide. This came about after the WOUGS trip to the Forest of Dean, Beachley and Sedbury in autumn 2013. The other was Race Against Time and Tide, a small near-square format painting which was also accepted for last year’s Stride exhibition at Oxmarket.

To quote from the first page of this year’s catalogue: “Farnham Art Society has gained an impressive reputation for the high standard and range of work by both professional and amateur [word btw derived from French for the love it] artists.”.  It is held in the James Hockey and Foyer Galleries in what’s now the University for the Creative Arts (UCA), previously known under various other names. It now attracts around 4000 visitors a year. The Society is one of the largest in southern England, now with around 400 members. All the more of an achievement considering that the Society is run entirely by volunteers. I know from helping out on their committee during the 2000s that a tremendous amount of effort goes into making it all happen.

The annual spring exhibitions include work by their Associate members, all professional artists who tend be members of prestigious organisations such as the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours (RI), the Society of Women Artists (SWA) and Royal Society of Painter Printmakers (RE). All the other work is by Exhibiting Members (EM). To become an EM members submit three works to a panel of judges comprising professional artists. There is then selection at each the annual exhibitions. As art groups, go, then this is a relatively challenging, demanding one. When I first joined in 2000, this put me off through my lack of confidence. As my painting developed, I grew in confidence, thanks in a large part due to the workshops, demonstrations, appraisals and outdoor painting days organised by Farnham Art Society. I changed my mind and applied successfully two years later. Now, even after moving out of the Farnham area to south Hampshire, I continue to be a member of FAS,  the rigorous selection keeps me on my toes / at the painting face.

Well before joining the Society, I was well aware of FAS, my father being a member for well over forty years. He’s now an Associate member. Though he’s usually exhibited his paintings and relief prints, he’s showed sculpture here during my childhood, too. Recall one of the family pet labrador.  The Annual Exhibition was always over the Easter period, during the art students’ spring vacation. The Foyer Gallery was added later on.

Thanks to a longstanding collaboration between Farnham Art Society and UCA / its predecessors, the exhibition can take place in a purpose built gallery with ample space and light to display over three hundred 2D (paintings, drawings, printmaking) and 3D works (sculpture, ceramics) attractively. This includes large scale canvases (1m upwards) which might not be accommodated in a smaller gallery. A good gallery space makes all the difference with any exhibition. All the more with the high level of talent clearly evident here. There’s usually a member of the gallery staff on the judging panel.

It is always good to have a range of sizes, including larger scale works. The larger works here certainly had impact. The only thing was - I realise I'm biased here as someone who tends to work on a relatively small scale - the bigger works perhaps tended to dominate, perhaps overshadowing at least some of the smaller ones. Even in a gallery as good as this one, some spots are better than others when it comes to grabbing visitors' attention: generally, the nearer the front of the gallery the better. That said, I wouldn’t know what else to suggest all else being the same. I know, too, a good deal of care and thought goes into hanging the paintings and assembling the 3D work on the tables and plinths. It usually takes at least a full day, involving a team of people. The overall results is always good.

The exhibition judges award several prizes, given out at the preview even before the exhibition opens to the public. There’s a vote for the Visitors’ Prize, too, where gallery goers can vote for their best painting / sculpture, awarded after the exhibition when the votes are counted. At an exhibition with such high calibre and variety, I always find it hard to decide, particularly for 3D. Among the works which stood out for me this year were:

Gone But Not Forgotten – a large vertical oil painting on canvas by R. Alan Ryder, near the Foyer Gallery Entrance, depicting the now dismantled Cargate water tower near Aldershot. This won the James Hockey Award for Painting.

http://www.gethampshire.co.uk/news/local-news/water-tower-recorded-for-posterity-5355037

Jackie Rennie – View from Caesar’s Camp, Jackie Rennie, acrylic on canvas, square format. I liked how she emphasised the middle distance and what looked like purple irises growing on the hillside in the foreground. The landscape diffused towards the top of the painting, the skyline out of the frame.

Greenwich Phoenix – one of John Bryce’s variations on his multi-block Cutty Sark linocut.

Highly commended for the Henry Hammond Award for Ceramics was Urban Rural by Glyn Jones. This was one of several earthenware spherical or cone shaped ceramics with patterns depicting a bird’s eye views over the landscape, with built up areas, waterways, networks of roads. Resemblances here to what we saw around Shoreham-by-Sea on Easter Monday.