Wander in Wet Woods

 

Acorn advance

A meeting place to exchange Christmas presents in, as they say 'a Covid secure manner' presented an opportunity to take a wander through Serpentine Woods near Kendal and potentially a journey through the alphabet.  A map and clues exist as to what one might find however we were rather unprepared, but happily not for the weather, being kitted out with wellies and waterproofs . The first sculpture was easy to spot for it starts the path in the photo above and  A -"will grow one day into a great tree"

"B has he most beautiful wings you will see".  The winter trees form a nice backdrop for this colourful butterfly

Count the legs and what do we see a centipede on a tree.  Fun fact you'll never find one with 100 legs because they have an odd number of pairs and those legs move fast.

but not as fast as a deer.  We spotted three more letters on the alphabet but missed two had a distraction or two and the rest and as Eric Morecambe said of his piano playing "they are the right notes but not necessarily in the right order"

Despite the dull day there was still colour in the woods. This fern was almost like a Christmas display. Ferns absorb nutrients from their leaves before shedding them and all the nutrients have been taken underground.  The snowy white fonds remains until they die and disappears.

Oh look we have found a ladybird. Hurray.

And a pheasant, not the weather for sitting.

Nature can produce her own living sculptures.  This Burr Knot almost seems to have little clasped hands beneath it.

Mr Rat with his curly tail.

Trying to work out how to make a door.  There are quite a few of these shelters throughout the woods and every one had to be  one had to be explored by a tiny person.

Eventually ending with a ring of the Jingle Bells.   We saw a lot of the alphabet but not all and one (the umbrella) we were told by a friendly passer by was undergoing repairs.

Time to go our separate ways home and leave the wood behind, it is a popular place for a stroll with dogs or children.  Here is someone who visited in Summer although the weather looks similar.

Split Decision

Split Decision by Sam Shendi on the Plinth outside Liverpool Parish Church

Walking into Liverpool from a different direction than usual when visiting the city I turned into Chapel Street and was hit in the eye with these colours. I had discovered the Liverpool plinth.  Like London's fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square it also hosts a temporary sculpture but in this case it is chosen by competition open to people living and working in the north of England.

This striking sculpture measures 45 metres and the artist says the "colours express emotions and fears that a depressed individual experiences when having to make a decision".  I wonder if the body also represents a bottle of pills or just the feeling of being blue.  The colours are the same in each direction - choices are hard when not being able to see a difference in direction.

One of life's coincidences means that this sculpture, chosen in 2019, is so relevant in these strange times of the Covid 19 virus and the instruction to everyone of social distancing, only necessary travel and self-isolation when all sorts of decisions, big and small, will have to be made.  
 
The Artist:
Sam Shendi is an Egyptian born British sculpture who lives and works in Yorkshire. His other works can be seen on his website.  He works in industrial materials such as stainless steel, aluminum or fibreglass to create his figurative works but the colours distract from the material and what lies beneath,  They are fascinating from the whimsical to the thought provoking.

The Not Just Hockney website has a short bio and for lover of the industrial history a photo of his commemoration of the nail makers of Silsden.  Hopefully in the future I could combine a visit to Silsden with a walk by the wonderful Leeds to Liverpool Canal.  

The Mere Cremone Gardens

To continue my stroll by the side of The Mere from the previous post I'll start with this Wood Pigeon chilling out.

The sun was against me to capture 'Secure' (made of steel and oak) by Nick Horrigan so maybe I'll pass the view off as moody.  Next

Its so quiet -sshhh. 

The artist John Merrill was inspired to create the wooden SShhh by the peace and quiet of the beech avenue at the end of Cremone Gardens. Originally made of local lime wood the weather eventually took its toll so he has re-carved and replaced the letters in good old sturdy oak. The utility vehicle was also quiet however its driver was hard at work with a leaf blower keeping the path clear. He had come prepared for in the yellow bucket was something most welcome on a chilly and windy day, a hot drinks flask. His leaf blower was turned off when we reached the sculpture and he

waited until I had taken a picture of the decorated holly tree and passed him to retrace our steps

for the path beyond in the woods was very muddy not the place for someone wearing the wrong footwear.

Or to go beyond the gate to the Fishing Pod to gaze over the waters. I believe there is a family of otters living on The Mere - no need for them to join the EAC (Ellesmere Angling Club) for these natural catchers of fish have carte blanche

Links

Ellesmere Sculpture Trail - John Merrill
Ellesmere Sculpture Trail - Nick Horrigan with a much better photo.

Henry Moore Animal Head

Animal Head  by Henry Moore (1957)

A mythical animal gazes at the gardens of the Kröller-Müller Museum in the Netherlands.  Is it mammal, reptile or from another dimension?  It could be described as a gargoyle, those that frighten and guard a church from evil or harmful spirits, this one looks more benign surrounded by the natural world and only a product of the artists imagination, one yet to come or arriving fully formed like an evolution of a species.

Henry Moore cast this animal head from 1957-1967 another has made its hone in  Tate Britain but I don't know if it is on display.

Zebra Art

A zebra glistens under the arches and is the creation of the Michael Joo which he called "Stubbs (Absorbed)" which is a reference to George Stubb's portrait of a zebra , an animal which was kept in the British royal family's menagerie after it was gifted to Queen Charlotte.  Joo was struck by the zebra's incongruous English countryside setting in the painting.

It may not be obvious in my photographs but Joo's zebra has a highly reflective surface which is meant to absorb the external environment of the sculpture and he says he would love to exhibit it in a forest.  Stubb's 1763 portrait was so detailed that zoologists from a later century could identity it as a Cape Mountain Zebra, the smallest of the species.

The mountain zebra was the choice of another artist so it must have been why Jonathan Kingdon's "Hartmann's Mountain Zebra" was placed nearby. There is a bit of a scientific dispute as to whether the Cape and Hartmann are two similar distinct species or the same one. The person to ask would definitely be Jonathan Kingdon for not only is he an artist and sculptor but also a zoologist and science author. It was while putting together his 'An Atlas of Evolution in Africa' that he asked himself the question - what are zebra stripes for? He continues "After months and years of observation in many parts of East Africa and quantitative experiments with painted stripe panels I concluded that stripes, for zebras, had become a sort of bonding device... served to make any zebra attractive. An important quality in the progressive socialisation of a famous curmudgeonly mammal"

I like the sweeping mane on the sculpture and whatever the zebra stripes are for they are always mesmerising so here is the real thing - Hartmann's Mountain Zebra. 

By Yathin S Krishnappa - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at Z here

 

Water of Life

For the 900th Anniversary of the foundation of the Benedictine Abbey of St Werburgh in 1092 in Chester a sculpture was placed in the Cloister Garden of  what is now a cathedral but is where once monks walked and drew their water supply at the centre of the abbey.

The inspiration is the story of Jesus and the woman of Samaria  and a quote from the Gospel of John is inscribed around the outside of the plinth - Jesus said "the water I shall give will be an inner spring always welling up for eternal life"

The cathedral cloister passage windows can be seen in the background.

and the garden is as popular place to sit and walk as I imagine it was all those hundred of years ago for the monks. 

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at W here

 

 

Unknown

 Here is Ellis O'Connell's "Capsule for destinies unknown" (2017) and a little girl with a balloon is starting her own journey.  This object was in the grounds of Chester Cathedral as part of their ARK exhibition and O'Connell made a sculpture for the event that she thought was relevant to the idea of shelter and refuge in these uncertain times.  It references the refugee crisis and also the sale of arms to repressive regimes.  So it could be a torpedo or escape pod take your pick.  The start of the apocalypse or the escape from it.  The material is corrugated galvanised steel and polycarbonate sheeting and as she says "humble everyday materials often used to make temporary living spaces".

Or perhaps this object has brought visitors from another dimension for nearby

are two of Lynn Chadwick's steel Beasts. In the foreground, Rising Beast (1989) and Duttan's Beast (1990) named after one of Chadwick's friends.

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at the letter U here

   

Ing, Inn and In

A late summer's day on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal with a narrow boat leaving St Ann's Ing Lock, which has the smallest rise on the canal of 4 foot and six inches so it must be one of the quickest locks to get through. Ing or ings means a meadow near a watercourse, the unsaid is that it is probably a very wet meadow.  This one is between canal and river.  I wondered about the St Ann connection but could find nothing but I know there many sacred spring wells named after her throughout the country. Perhaps she is associated with freshwater.

 

If you wanted more than freshwater then The Boathouse Inn might be just the place to imbibe something else.  I mentioned the nearby river.  What might be found there?

Well surprisingly a cat in a bath.  This is one of the sculptures on the River Aire Sculpture Trail.

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at I here

 

   

Habitual Howling

 Last year Blackwell (the 'Arts and Crafts' house in the Lake District) played host to sculptures by Lynn Chadwick (1914-2003), and outside on the lawns were the larger pieces from his imagination.  Here is Howling Beast sitting on its haunches by the side of the house. A piece from 1990 when his sculptures took a darker turn

By the house entrance was this couple perpetually climbing stairs

'Stairs' (1991)

For those not able to climb stairs the house entrance has the gentle slope to the door leading to where more of Chadwick's sculptures were on display.  When asked about his working methods he said "I start by welding. If I start by thinking first I can't do anything".  His working technique was to build a skeleton from metal rods welding them together and then building up a form from stolit (a mix of plaster and iron filings) and working on pieces until  "they become something in their own right".  

 The 'Walking Women in Wind' (1986) seems to be doing just that.

Chadwick started out as an architectural draughtsman so I think he would appreciate the 'Sitting Couple' location by a house.  He repeated a variation of this sculpture many times and in fact there is a version of it in Canary Wharf, London.   He took up sculpture after serving as a pilot in World War 2  and started with metal mobiles in the 1940s, his first one man exhibition came in 1950  and among the many prizes he won was the International Sculpture prize at 1956 Venice Biennial . 

People are taking tea on the terrace behind our couple, the overcast day meaning there was no requirement for sun shades and maybe why tea inside was the preferred option, but the view outside had attracted the hardy few.

'Sitting Couple' on the Blackwell lawn overlooking Windermere

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at H here

Promenading on the Pleasure Pier

What time is it?  Its time to walk down the pier

or alternatively jump on the tram which is waiting to glide away. Those muffled up people show perhaps the reason  I'll leave this walk for another day when the sun is out

OK that is better

Well its gone 10 and this brings a new meaning to "early doors" 

and the start of our 1,216 yards (1112 m) stroll.  Southport Pier  it is the second longest in Britain but it is also the oldest iron pier although the railings seen here are modern.

The pier celebrated its 150th anniversary in August 2002 with free rides and music.

And now I have reached the end and "The Vortex" a 6 metre high stainless steel sculpture, the light reflects and distorts.  I imagine one can have great fun photographing this in all lighting conditions and then rest on the seating at the bottom. The globe at the top lights up at night although as we are on the west coast sunset would be another photo opportunity. The structure is designed by Craig and Mary Matthews of  Cammdesign

What no ice cream!  Guess we are too early, shame.  I will just have to gaze out

to sea, the tide is out, just a small channel left and in the distance is Blackpool pleasure beach

 just too far away to sweep down the big dipper.

I started with the grey day so I'll finish with it and, as the sign says,    "Thank you for Visiting Southport Pier". Now I can have that ice cream, the stall is just around the corner.

An entry to ABC Wednesday - a stroll through the alphabet.