December 19th, 2007 Doug
It’s at this time of year, during the long winter nights, that I plan and long for days out researching and collecting for my projects. At the moment I am working on a series of images entitled ‘Cille’, and I’m using materials and photographs collected around Ardneil Bay in Ayrshire during the summer of 2007. I spent the day out looking for interesting colours and textures in the old red sandstone rocks that form the local coastline.
This is the kind of beach-combing that I like, not actually taking anything from the beach other than the memories, a few sketches, and some photographs. The flotsam and jetsam that litters our coasts is often what gives the places their character, as long as it is mainly natural materials, and not just an assortment of plastic detritus!
I’m not sure if I object to people taking objects from the beaches, after all I have done it myself in the past, but if it is to only add a few decorations to bathrooms then I’d leave it in place. One of my favorite beaches to walk on is from White’s Bay to Stinking Bay on Great Cumbrae. When you get up close to the sands, you realise it is made up of thousands of crushed shells, mainly Mussels. This gives the beach a distinctly ‘blue’ colour and makes it stand out as you pass by.
These sands are made by the constant action of the wind and waves on the Atlantic coast; writing, erasing, and re-writing the details as the seasons change and the seas carry trinkets to be place on the strand lines.
I think I can sum up my feelings about the coast with a quote from the poet Thomas A. Clark;
‘What I take with me, what I leave behind, are of less importance than what i discover along the way’.
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December 1st, 2007 Doug
Old Red Sandstone, Ayrshire
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December 1st, 2007 Doug
A few days ago I spent an hour or so on one of my favorite pastimes, rummaging in old bookshops. I’ve collected books for working and pleasure for years, and love the thrill of finding a volume of poetry or a reference text for working that I have been searching for for years. On this occasion it was the racks of old maps that were my main focus. I’ve built up a good collection of “Bartholomew’s Quarter Inch Maps Of Scotland”, and I am always on the look out for the elusive missing sections of the country, or replacements for well worn and used copies.
At the time of publishing, there were several choices of the style of the map you could buy, depending ( I guess) on your disposable income. A small section of maps on the shelf drew my attention, and amongst them was a pristine condition copy of a ‘dissected and mounted on cloth’ map, the Rolls Royce of Bart’s maps. In the pile was a copy of ‘Glasgow and Oban’, looking as if it had never been unfolded. The map contained my haven area of the Clyde Estuary and the Cumbraes, and the small dissected sections of the map were in beautiful condition.
I’ve always been fascinated by maps; planning oaths I’m going to take, or recollecting previously walked routes, using the maps as a mnemonic to recall images, colours and places that have caught my imagination. Many of the maps I have used over the years for working are peppered with small pencil notes and drawings, names and descriptions of features, stories and ideas. I’ve enjoyed naming the unnamed features on the maps, and putting back forgotten or old names of places that are local or no longer included by Ordnance Survey. This may sound like a romantic pursuit, but many of the names will describe less than desirable features, such as the many ‘Destitution Roads’ on the west coast of Scotland.
I have worked with several writers and artists who have a similar addiction to maps as myself. A dear friend and collaborator, the poet Valerie Gillies once described her practice as “a pair of boots, a map and a compass”. Maps are an invaluable tool to me, both in the field and in the research and preparation work done in the studio. Both Valerie and I explore and research areas of interest to us very thoroughly, and spend a large amount of time in preparation for working by researching locations and subjects through books, websites and of course, maps. I will ‘walk’ an area by reading the details of the map, studying the drawings and features, finding the right areas to explore in the relative comfort of the studio, before venturing out into the real thing.
I’ve been back in the bookshop again today, searching through the racks for the missing stretch of coastline or the wild glens and burns, hoping above all to find the next pristine ‘dissected and mounted on cloth’. Follow the links below to Valerie’s ‘Poetry map Of Scotland’, or the Ordnance Survey website. Start your own addiction to maps!
www.spl.org.uk/poetry_map/index1.htm
www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk
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