TPK Walk/Kayak! 53: St John – Landulph via Torpoint and Saltash

HYDROPHONE EXPERIMENTS IN THE RIVER TAMAR

Started walking again and also kayaking as the most direct route to the trigpoint was along the Tamar. Geographically the Tamar divides Devon from Cornwall and so has symbolic gravitas. I recorded at different points along the Tamar on both Devonian and Cornish banks to see if the water sounded any different…

The second recording includes violin. At the end of the walk I was improvising and it was freezing cold and I couldn’t shake the minor key and it was dark and owls hooting added to the eerie moment, with only the lights of the Tamar bridge in the distance.

THE WALK:Started off grey but I knew the weather was changing – fortunately with the tide rising INland up the Tamar and not out to sea.Pretty and busy village of St John.St Johns Lake creek- a firing range so be carefulNearby HMS Raleigh Naval base.I had to be careful as I was fully tooled up with numerous cameras and devices and a violin case which looks like a small arms rifle case… The armed guards and police at HMS Raleigh Naval Base entrance smiled as they saw me approach with a grin and a shout of “just a crazy artist” This character caught my eye in Torpoint high street. He appears in the drawing.I entered the water directly opposite Devonport and next to the Torpoint ferry (this is in the sound recording)An ominous black hole across the water swallows boats and submarines…Lots of buoys. Bright colours appear in the finished drawing.By 3pm it was blue skies and I could concentrate on the bridges.The Union Inn pubGood job there was not much wind as it was tricky to balance and get the hydrophone in the water with expensive equipment on board!After taking several recordings I set off for the trigpoint 2 miles up river away from the two bridges.This is where the Ents live after appearing in the Lord of the Rings- they come here to rest in the gentle tidal creeks.I met the friendly Allen (above) who was walking his dogs. He guided me to the summit from Cargreen and we couldn’t locate the trigpoint in the dusk. There is a trigpointing community online who often give tips to where the trigpoints are (they are often overgrown with bramble and thorn and are often neglected/forgotten) and a quick check at home revealed that it is near the Electricity pylon but… http://trigpointing.uk/trigtools/search-logs.php?t=CargreenHere is the drawing/rubbings I did on this walk. Buoys, boats, bridges and boys.And the found objects. There is something disturbing about the pink balloon and it seemed appropriate to have bright colours emphasising parts of life in this part of Cornwall.I coloured in the drawing using colours from the found objects…. I dont like it!This was the route.

Thanks for flicking through…

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Kayak experiments

My next two walks are directly along the River Tamar, the border between Cornwall and Devon. I am planning to Kayak large sections of these walks along the Tamar river and capture something of these important riverine places which have geographical, symbolic and anthropological significance…

In preparation I decided to Kayak to Harbour Church this morning, taking advantage of the extra hours sleep, and the full moon high tide, which gently rises to the road outside the little gatehouse where I live

I collect the soil in my boots as I walk so I thought I would ‘trawl’ for submarine treasures as I kayaked along but I only had a perforated plastic bag… I quickly realised that this acts as a big brake on my movement through the water so abandoned the idea until I can get a suitable fishing net.

I am interested in the sounds of the landscape above and below the water so I dipped my gopro into the water but all one can hear is the kayak warbling through the water and my paddles going rhythmically… next time I should maybe sink the gopro (which annoyingly wanted to float on the surface) to get some real seafloor action.

https://vimeo.com/user88454136/review/297590486/001429e41b

It did get pretty scary at a couple of points as I had not factored in a stiff North Easterly breeze which built over the expanse of the Carrick roads and chopped the water up into big crests which battered my bowside enough to make me nervous about carrying on around the headland.

I grounded at one point when the strong wind and waves pushed me on to the shallow rocks and I had to bail out and push off into the open water again but it was only a brief delay and with the tide still going out and the wind increasingly behind me I made great progress beating walkers who were on a Sunday morning stroll around Trefusis point!I was glad to arrive at David and Judith Eastburn’s who kindly let me moor at their little beach in Flushing and I was wet but satisfied with the journey and my experimental outcomes:

I can fit the violin, rucksack and artboard on the sit on kayak (double)

I did some underwater sound and vision recording

I negotiated some tricky estuary and open water conditions successfully

I collected some beach stones to grind up for artboard pigments

Keep watching as I continue to explore art in place…

 

 

RAD SURFACE 2018 Exhibition Stills

Stills from my recent exhibition if you couldn’t make it down.

This exhibition is a 3 year milestone for me and now as I start an MA in Fine Art at Plymouth, expect my output to evolve in different ways.

I have included here each of the 36 pieces as well as a few stills from the exhibition.cornwall outline 2018 25-52

 

Thanks for watching this space.

RAD SURFACE 2018 exhibition video snippets

For those that couldn’t make it to the exhibition of 3 years of walking around Cornwall:

TPK Exhibition ‘RAD SURFACE’: 18th – 22nd Oct, Fish Factory, Penryn, TR10 8AG

Come to my solo exhibition if you can! Busy preparing and stacking up 37 works…

I have been working hard to make an exhibition of 37 pieces of work from the last 3 years of walking across South Cornwall. Its called ‘RAD SURFACE’ after walk 25 when I found a fortuitously damaged road sign.

https://www.facebook.com/events/279702049420969/

Exhibition address:

Fish Factory, Penryn, Cornwall, TR10 8AG

Opening night with refreshments Thursday 18th October 6-9pm

 

TPK Walk 53: Crafthole – St John’s Down

I think this is my last walk for a while because I have got a heel problem 😦 I am over half way though 🙂

I will use my recuperation time to compose and work towards an exhibition…

It was such an interesting walk on a sunny day.

Highlights were Lugger’s man made cave (below) marked ‘Grotto’ on the OS map (below below) which reminded me of Prussia Cove, and the impressive Tregantle fort and ‘danger area’ firing range.From one range to another I walked.Looking back towards Looe I caught the golf strike moment  🙂   Below, Whitsand bay stretches out to Rame Head in the distance before Plymouth Sound.The water was still, clear and inviting.  The fields were full of colour and life like this Marbled white butterfly (Melanargia galathea) above and I try and follow the random flutter by movements with my pencil (below)  All this beauty Juxtaposed against Tregantle fort and its brutal raison d etre. Little observation huts are dotted around.  I relished walking into the ‘danger area’ but the red flags were down on the numerous poles.  Built to deter French attack in the mid 19th century, the imposing battery is still used for Royal Navy training but some of the buildings are now also used for accommodation and the army use the surrounding area as a firing range.  Willowherb (purple) and meadowsweet  (cream white) combine stunningly against the blue sea.  The very popular coves and Whitsand bay are looked on by the RNLI.  And just below the RNLI hut was where the Navy man by the name of ‘Lugger’ dug his cave with a view and apparently recovered from an illness of gout. The nearby village of Freathy has holiday homes galore just on the edge of spectacular creekside hills and valleys. Perfect for scouting deer that I stumbled upon leaping and playing now in the distance, also enjoying the weather.  

TPK Walk 52: No Mans Land to Crafthole

Click on the link below.

This walk was done in two takes and my friend Mary came with me on the second one.

Sunrise over Saltash and the Tamar estuary.

Enjoying the fine grasses 🙂

Getting too warm for sheepcoats now.  This sheep poo was the first mark on the artboard.

Below: Woody nightshade Solanum dulcamara. PS this is not the really poisonous rarer Deadly nightshade  (next picture)

Off the beaten track we meet Mark, a ‘post-internet-ist’ (below), who grew up playing in the now derelict and ruined St Germans hut, a former hunting lodge of the Earl of St Germans. Mark and his partner Sam were back to explore childhood memories of place and shared stories and poetry of an anti-capitalist flavour with us:

“The concrete world of concentration, is the inevitable phase which is last, dispersal of the masses is a relic of the past.

Migration to the markets, consumption, pollution and greed, the natural world survives, clinging to its seed.

And as if it is the catalyst to the future, money changes hands, making the future just wants [not needs], followed by a fungus of hands.

Yet the human race runs on, seemingly never to tire, thinking its new technology will be the true messiah.

But bridges and roads, and now the internet, are just tentacles, desperately searching for more, because space is not mans domain, we’ve already lost our war.

As well as contributing to the artboard…

St Germans Hut Circa 1890:  

St Germans Hut 2018:  Strange woodland forms now occupy the area.As well as the underrated stinking Iris- Iris foetidissima – good for deep shade spots.A secret path leads down to the secluded naturist beach and shag rock… Hmm…

Sea Kale and Rock Samphire grow in abundance out of the cliff.

Fresh green sprigs of Rock Samphire Crithmum maritimum makes a tasty marine garnish to avocado crackers with a touch of sea salt! 

Back on the coastal path the sheep breed are adapted to the steep cliffside grazing and I find mechanically shawn and naturally shed wool for the artworks. And we head off with Whitsand Bay in the distance. (note the Sea Kale*)3 weeks ago Sea thrift dominated the ground coverage (below)

Now delicious grasses compete for light, colour and texture. And the coastal path is dotted with wanderers.In funnily named Portwrinkle we meet a genuine Wild Forager who teaches us how to cook Sea Kale!*

There are trendy ‘eco’ homes with fabulous views.But the doves and pigeons have the best house of all up on the golf course outside Crafthole, complete with state of the art oculus skylight (below)And the delightful little village of Crafthole has local volunteers selling everything you need for community life. Drawing 2 (completed yesterday)Drawing 1 (completed 3 weeks back)

Thanks to Mary for carrying my violin 😉 Shes an artist studying an MA at Plymouth, check out her work at marytrapp.co.uk she recently exhibited at the Poly in Falmouth.

The route taken. Thanks for reading.