Angie Rogers Artist

GET INSPIRED

Connecting you to Landscape, Nature and The Wild.

Taste The Landscape.

Greetings from Calderdale in June, possibly the loveliest month for verdancy in nature, or do you have a different favourite?

Moving through landscape in the fullness of summer, there’s the potential for sensory overload in a good way. This is especially true if you are walking alone as without the distraction of conversation with a companion, your experience of place is even more intense

The memory of the sights, sounds, scents and feel of that outdoor space stay with you, which can be helpful when you feel cooped up in a city or spending too many days indoors through illness or work. When you recall the unmistakeable drumming of woodpeckers or the astringent odour of warm pine sap, you can easily let yourself be transported back to their habitat.

And have you ever tried tasting the landscape? A fun way of imprinting a space in your memory can be had by sampling the odd flower of say Gorse or a leaf of wild Mint growing along the way.

I tried a pinch of tiny florets from this elder tree the other day. Sadly my sense of smell/taste has been dulled by hay fever so is currently unreliable but I registered a faint pleasant taste similar to Elderflower cordial, unsurprisingly!

It always amazes me how few people stop to eat blackberries or bilberries in the late summer. A generous gift of nature I find them irresistible. (It goes without saying to only eat what you know to be safely edible).

The poet Robert Burns apparently was partial to a wild moorland tea made from heather tops and the leaves of bilberry, blackberry and thyme. I like the idea of this and want to try it but I’m not sure the reality could compete with a nice cup of Assam. What do you think? I guess that even if things taste weird or vile, trying them once would certainly be memorable!

Bringing The Outside In

I’m grateful to my late friend Sarah Halstead for first kindling my interest in the artist Winifred Nicholson 1893 - 1981. Winifred spent her long career investigating colour and often used unusual colour combinations. She painted landscape and figures and experimented with abstract art but I suspect she is most loved for her nuanced paintings of flowers.
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She believed in the light giving properties of violet and magenta, allowing yellow to come to life. You can see this in her lovely painting below - the way those two very different yellows work in harmony. And look at those apricot shadows beneath the vases.

To quote from Christopher Neve’s marvellous book ‘Unquiet Landscape’ which devotes a whole section to Winifred, “Flowers trap colour as a rainbow is trapped in a spray of water. Winifred Nicholson admired them for their form but painted them as pure colour unexplained … she would collect wild flowers and put them in a jug on her table to act as a lamp on a dull day.”
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Don’t you love the idea of wild flowers bringing the light of outside into your home? Most people aren’t painters but we’ve all got access to our phone cameras if we want to be creative with colour, light, shade and form. So why not try it, you might find a new pastime that changes how you see your world?

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Remember that so-called weeds, despised and frequently poisoned are also wild flowers that can be life-enhancing If you choose to recognise their value.

Skies

Our ancient ancestors weren’t so much connected to Nature as profoundly a part of it. They lived under the sun and moon and thus would have been aware of all the movements and changes going on above them.

Living deep in a valley, I miss out on an expansive sky. I loved long camping holidays in my childhood where there were constant opportunities to watch the sky from outside our tent. To be enthralled by the mystery of shooting stars, the Milky Way, the shy moon in the daytime, sheet lightning and giant anvil clouds.

Lately I’ve been making a real effort to see more of the sky and to pay attention to the peregrinations of the moon. The result is a series of little sky studies eight inches square on Two Rivers handmade paper with a deckled lower edge.

Here’s a small selection. Bottom row left is oil paint and the others are done in acrylic.

A brief reminder that The Book Of Bogs featuring my artwork on the cover, is available to pre-order from https://www.littletoller.co.uk/shop/books/little-toller/the-book-of-bogs-edited-by-anna-chilvers-and-clare-shaw/ and is £20.

Making Ripples Together

As I’ve mentioned before, it's motivating when the creative ripples are reflected back.
I always reply to your emails, ( in my own words as I don’t use a robot! )

Thanks to lovely supporters Gesiena, Janet, Samantha, Rod and Beverley who responded to my previous email. Your enthusiasm and encouragement is greatly appreciated by me.

I am delighted to learn that Janet is making a wren box inspired by the one I showed you in the March email. And pleased to chat about the difference between Common Hogweed and Giant Hogweed with Beverley who is all the way over in Ontario. Gesiena told me about the exceptional abundance of May blossom in Kent this year, something I had also noticed in Calderdale.
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Be sure to spend time and enjoy the outdoors as we move into July. If you are unwell or feeling sad, remember that there is always consolation to be found in nature, which demands nothing in return, only that you tread lightly.
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All the best
Angie

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