On October 1st I braved the weather and donning waterproofs, rucksack and easel, I made my way into the Gardens at Tremenheere. (Nr Gulval, Penzance TR20 8YL)
Here are a few images from their website:
and here are a few of my photos:
I spent some time sitting quietly tuning into the feeling of the place. I needed to settle, be still, and wait. I could sense the hands of the people who have worked that land over centuries. They were gnarly, old, bright and light also, weaving their fingers in amongst the plants. They shone through the damp morning.
I had bought a postcard book, I thought I’d walk and draw, making a little document of my afternoon. The rain and mud I wanted to work with changed the scale. I made notes, further drawings.
My insights/thoughts/impulses went a bit like this…
…sensing the hands of the gardeners, the people who have worked with the place, over generations;
drawing with grass, soil, leaf mould, seeing the rabbit traces, imagining them taking back ownership when night falls;
spending time with Tim’s Blind Minotaur, having a sense that the sucked – in eyes were like navels, at the point of vortices between worlds;
then returning to the light place where I sat and drawing, having a sense of the sky providing navels and energetic umbilici to the earth below
sensing the garden as a sleeping creature, nourished and protected by a kind my mythic large-bellied bird (something like a swan) flying and yet motionless above
Here are some drawings I made in the garden. Most were unfinished, the beginnings of something more…(I hope to return to Tremenheere after its’ Winter rest, to work in residence for some months during next spring and early summer…)