How is it that eating a plate of corned beef hash can result in a gain of 2 pounds weight? Admittedly it was a large portion, cooked myself, with a few baked beans on the side, but it blew my weight loss out the window! So now I need to set about trying to walk it off (forlorn hope, better a fasting day…) It was a beautiful day, so I set off to walk my challenge, the walk down to the Coast Guard cottages on the Cuckmere from South Barn, a walk famous throughout the world from movies and pop videos, and my ‘back yard’. The sun shone, it was warming up as we strode into Spring, so what could go wrong?
The first challenge is usually parking, but there was no problem, despite the popularity with dog walkers, it was quite early and although the sun was up the tourists don’t arrive until after ten, so just local chatty dog walkers for company. The view as I get out of the car is down the Cuckmere Valley into the South Downs and it is guaranteed to take the breath away in its beauty, so the first image is collected… The pond by the barn, with the adder ‘house’ beside it, reflected the blue sky, as did the puddle at the start of the walk to see the Seven Sisters, the cloud in the background a clue to what was to come.
Last time I did this walk, before days of drizzle kept me closer to the house, I saw the sea steaming, a phenomenon caused by the cold weather. Today was warm so I expected to see the glow of the Seven Sisters rounded white cliffs as I walked. But already the first tendrils of the sea mist were inserting themselves between the valley walls, the sloping greensward allowing the swelling cloud to drift upstream towards Alfriston.
|I walked about a third of the way down to the cottages when there was a clear sharp drop in temperature and I began to take a series of photographs of the sea mist creeping up the valley, rising up the sides, hiding the cliffs leaving just Belle Tout light house above, but soon even that was then swallowed by cloud. Looking down the path I saw the chimneys of the cottages also being hidden as if by smoke as the cloud spread up my side of the valley almost like something from a horror movie
The cold increased and dampness prevailed. Sheep carried on grazing unperturbed by the changes but I turned around, having done about half the intended walk. I decided to return to Seaford’s beach to take some more images of the steps, adding to my walking target as I did do (steps for steps, you see…). My latest obsession being worked on in the studio. Little did I know we seem to be a part of Bill Gates lunatic efforts to block the sun, and my images seem to show he has stolen the sea, as it cannot be seen…
One commentator remarked that one of the images in this set on the studio wall “I know its stairs but it’s like an ancient Bridget Riley form a parallel universe”. It seems that as I continue my obsessive exploration of texture, surface and colour one person at least is following my journey from the ‘Bridget Riley of the Shingle’.
A2 prints on the studio wall – images taken to provide visual ‘aids’ as I fumble with paint, still struggling to find my way after 60 years in studios…
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