Angie Rogers Artist

GET INSPIRED

Connecting you to Landscape, Nature and The Wild.

Just Like A Ballerina, Stepping Lightly.

Did you know, fungi are neither plants nor animals but are a separate kingdom of life?
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Ballerina or Pink Waxcaps are rare and threatened fungi found only in a few environments such as the unimproved grasslands above Hardcastle Crags, a wooded valley in Calderdale owned by The National Trust and just down the road from my home.
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Earlier in the year I accepted an invitation to take part in Ancient Underlands an art and creative writing project about the grassland fungi, exhibiting in Autumn - the best time to see fungi. The exhibition is on now at Gibson Mill in the Crags and continues for another couple of weeks.
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The pink waxcap and its grassland relatives are very small, no more than a few inches tall, but are also vital to the health of ecosystems in ways we do not fully understand. Inspired by this knowledge, I decided to make a monumental drawing to flag up their importance and to make people take notice.

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The drawing is charcoal on Saunders Waterford 600 gsm watercolour paper and measures 40 x 30 inches.

In case you are wondering, ‘Just like a ballerina, stepping lightly’ is a line from a song by Van Morrison I’ve always liked.
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If you normally make something in a certain size range, it can be challenging and fun to make it much smaller or much larger. I don’t usually make drawings larger than about 20 inches square because framing becomes very expensive and problematic - all that heavy glass.
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I really enjoy working on a larger scale though, everything feels spacious, you can use big sweeping arm movements and it provides an ideal opportunity to use ‘The Beast’ a massive stick of charcoal I bought ages ago but haven’t used much. It was a case of finding the right job for the tool!

You can see The Beast below, looking incongruously huge compared to the very beautiful thin sticks of willow charcoal I often prefer for their finesse and responsiveness. The big stick feels clumsy but it was great for laying in the large areas of velvety black surrounding the Ballerina Waxcap.
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If you’d like to know more about the charcoal, I normally use willow charcoal grown and made in Somerset by Coates a family-run business that has manufactured willow for over 200 years.
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For true charcoal enthusiasts there are two lovely short films by Jacksonsart.com On Location at Coates and In Conversation with Nichola Coate here​

The Beast is made by Nitram and is actually called The Maxi Baton de Saule.

Bringing The Outside In - Gifts From The River

This is a selection of small stone pebbles and water-washed terracotta I've collected from Hebden Water, the local tributary that flows down from Hardcastle Crags and joins the river Calder in the centre of Hebden Bridge.
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You can be creative arranging pebbles to look pleasing on a shelf or windowsill. Or have fun placing them on different coloured backgrounds and taking phone photos. See what a difference black paper makes. Also the light direction and camera angle make significant changes to the mood.
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The larger stones also make good paperweights!

I like the little slice of history contained within the collection, a story of place. The rocks are Millstone Grit, part of the identity of this Pennine area of Yorkshire, used for drystone walls and buildings including long-gone textile mills along the river. Storms and floods still bring chunks of mill masonry up onto the river beach.
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The terracotta pebbles can be bits of brick, glazed tiles or domestic bowls. Of course compared to mudlarking on the river Thames in London, this is modest fare but you work with what you've got.
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I wonder what tales you can find out from the pebbles in your local stream or river? Let me know or email some photos. Following my last email, I had a lovely exchange of messages with John a Get Inspired reader who is a big fan of the Cairngorm mountains and Nan Shepherd's The Living Mountain. I truly value making connections with kindred spirits and friends to nature.

I was going to tell you about an old book published 120 years ago called The Tramp's Hand-book I requested and received for my recent Birthday present but shall now wait until next time when I can take better photographs.

By the way, in British English a tramp is the equivalent of a hobo/rover/vagrant/gentleman of the road. I can't wait to show you some of the illustrations and fabulously antiquated language.
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In the meantime, enjoy the great outdoors, watch the clouds, notice the phases of the moon and get inspired!

All the best
Angie

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