Angie Rogers Artist

GET INSPIRED

Connecting you to Landscape, Nature and The Wild.

Tireless Nature
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Hello there friends,

I’m sending this now as I will be away for 2 weeks and not back until early May. I will be able to see and reply to any messages you send though.

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“Nature! We are surrounded and embraced by her …She herself is tireless. Her present is eternity. Always she is whole and yet never is she complete. All the time she constructs and she destroys all the time.” Goethe, the German poet and polymath.

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The circle of life was really brought home to me on an Easter walk through moorland around Gorple Reservoir high above Hebden Bridge. We had to stick tightly to the footpath to avoid stepping on the nests of Lapwings just lying in scrapes on the grass. I have never seen a Peewit nest before and found it magical to observe quite a few, each with either four or three eggs.

All that potential for new life wrapped up in these fragile, speckled shells and yet very sadly, nearby the hanging corpse of an adult Lapwing that had become trapped in a barbed wire fence.

That poor bird and somewhere a nest going cold. Imagine the carnage if the Saudi Arabian funded, so-called ‘Calderdale Energy Park’ is allowed to destroy Walshaw moor with its monstrous giant wind turbines, huge approach roads and associated infrastructure and all on precious carbon-storing blanket bog.
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Under A Metal Sky

I was struck by the lovely words about Nature from Goethe quoted above, in a marvellous book I’ve just read by Philip Marsden called Under A Metal Sky - A Journey Through Minerals, Greed and Wonder. Shown here with a lump of micaceous stone I brought back from a beach in Brittany appropriately named Mine D’Or which means Gold Mine.

I find it difficult to explain to you what makes this book so captivating, the quality of the writing of course, alongside the imaginative juxtapositions of literature, philosophy, history, science, engineering and art.

It is very much not a dry description of the mining of a range of minerals although their extraction and use is explored. I have learned so much within these pages.

Here he is talking about Moldavite a rare green kind of natural glass formed by an ancient meteorite impact

‘Beneath our feet, if we look closely, are shards of heaven, and overhead are wonders too and everywhere is the ceaseless dance of the universe - endlessly moving, endlessly changing, endlessly mysterious.’

The paperback book came from our local library and it was a ‘virgin copy’ brand new and unread. You are missing out if you never use a public library, free access to great reading is excellent in every way. I may never have alighted on Under A Metal Sky if I hadn’t seen it smiling at me from New Acquisitions.

You’ll Find Me In The Peatlands

Did you know that Artists are frequently advised they should consider a painting ‘done’ when they feel it’s 85% finished?

I don’t know where these ‘rules’ come from but there is something almost absurd about the precision of the percentage - why not 80 or 90? What do you think?

There is nothing wrong with pausing and reflecting as the work progresses and it is helpful to be reminded that a painting can become overworked and lose energy.

The problem remains, how to know when to stop. I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. I do know that tinkering at the end is not a good idea and best avoided.

Anyway, here is a new painting I’ve decided is completed. It’s been contemplated for a little while in my studio, is now varnished, and ready to go to the framers.

The title is You’ll Find Me In The Peatlands and is inspired by the feelings of aliveness and balance you can find when making a journey across the watery moor on a fine day.

The fragrance of fresh air and ancient moss, the caress of a sun-warmed breeze and the songs of Skylark, Curlew and Golden Plover create a mood of exhilarating freedom..

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Bringing The Outside In

Spring is such a bountiful time of year and it’d be great if you would send me some pictures of your own bringing the outside in. And has anyone been influenced by my examples over the months and years, I’d love to know.

This is a Peewit feather. Their under-tail /downy rump plumage is rusty orange.

I hasten to add that this was found in a completely different area to the unfortunate Lapwing I mentioned above.

See a woodcut of a Golden Plover nest and other delights in my shop

Ripples

Many of you were intrigued by the Mytholmroyd Cormorants in my previous email and messaged me about them which was a lovely surprise.

But it was the Fish Doorbell in Utrecht that really chimed the most! Some of us have reimagined the lock keeper as The Fish Butler and picture him rushed off his feet. I’ve not had a lot of luck seeing many fishes, just a glimpse occasionally.

Hebden Bridge is now well into its Spring transformation and by the time I return in 2 weeks it will be full on leaf-green and peak bluebell. In the meantime, I hope wherever you are in the world you can find solace and energy in Nature.
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All the best
Angie

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