I started writing this about 15 minutes after discovering that due to dog paperwork reasons (not our fault), our summer holiday in France is off. So I apologise if what follows comes across as slightly lacking in joy, but having managed a post each week recently, I was damned if I was going to miss this one due to a case of the Holiday Cancelled Blues. Deep breath and here goes…
It was all going so well too; for quite some while I had been interested in the remnants of the WWII defences built along the Kennet and Avon canal. I liked the rather odd sight of a squat concrete pillbox set against the rolling hills or along field edges and it seemed a natural progression to some of the pieces I’d done in Ullapool on the buildings left from the Arctic Convoys.
My location scout (thank you Bruce) suggested some tank traps that were on a bridge over the canal, we walked the hound together to the site then I was left to sketch while husband and said hound set off along the towpath.
The tank traps were rather imposing lumps of concrete and I liked the way they echoed the form of the hill in the background. Added to that was the presence of a Wiltshire ‘clump’ – a beech copse on the hill summit – plus an interesting farm building in the mid ground.
I found capturing the patterns of the lichen on the cap of the bollard challenging; a problem that remains to be solved, but I did enjoy drawing the small iron ring for some reason.
I worked in pencil to sketch the whole scene, then time was up as ice cream called so I headed back to collect the car and meet up with the rest of the pack. I did have plans to continue working from this sketch or possibly continue with a linocut of the Avebury stones that I started a couple of days ago, but I think in the circumstances I’m going to opt for a Pastis instead. I’d like to think that yelling ‘Muttley – doooooo something!’ could fix our travel paperwork problem, but no, this year we will be on a staycation. Triple drat.
Kate Chappell 