Week Twenty One & Twenty Two
“There are walks on which I lose myself, walks which return me to myself again.” Thomas Clark I have a favourite place that I walk to, its not particularly far, but the extent of the realms that it takes me to, are immense. It is a small ridge called Black Cragg, with spectacular views from the top and huge boulders to explore midway up. I have developed a new ‘weakness’ in life, which consists of sitting on a specific craggy rock.
I feel my true self and a myriad of other characters perched on my high throne, whilst the landscape in all its glory lies before me. Once again the heroines of ‘Wuthering Heights’ or ‘Pride and Prejudice’ dapple my imagination. It was the first place I returned to after my trip to Bristol. 
The landscape at the moment still cradles small patches of snow, and I fear the delights of the frozen puddle may disappear whilst spring emerges from her deep sleep. However if they do diminish, the last two I saw were of course impressive. Whilst with a group of fine art students from Newcastle University (visiting for the day) we came across a large body of water where it had frozen the thinnest of thin ice, the water level must have dropped dramatically leaving large sheets of ice cascading down in slopes, it was memorizing. We also stumbled upon Zen tyre and ice. I had an interesting time with the students, I showed them the delights of enamelling and they showed me the delights of their own workshops. My favourite workshop was following SAS instructions building a structure, whilst onlookers drew a new set of instructions following the progression of our creation, the other enjoyable workshop was creating sounds in a dark barn by hitting whatever took your fancy. 
There appears to be several new additions to the landscape, firstly new humps of gravel are dotted along the roadside, I imagine not particularly exciting for some people, although I confess, I find them rather delightful and appreciate there crucial existence having just come through the winter. The most exciting new addition I have discovered is some new signs dotted around and what they stand for. Yes, the lambing season is on the horizon. 
Generally lambing is a lot later here, for the obvious climatic reasons than down South. The McCracken’s farm (the closest to me) has lambs due around the 15th April, although obviously some naughty tups (rams), have had their wicked way earlier than expected as six have been born this week. So for the first time (yet another first) I get to see lambs close up, little cutie lambs with what seems ridiculously long legs and spinning tails ‘skipping’ around. If at all possible, I am hoping I will get the opportunity to hold one, I wonder if I’ll cry if I do….any bets??? So….here we are…..now wait for it…….a little picture of tantalising cuteness…… 
Another sign of spring brings the Curlews, but as of yet I have not seen any of the strange curved beaked birds myself. I’ve heard the strange sounds of the Snipe, an extremely difficult sound to describe, a kind of whirring noise, as though one has tied a bunch of feathers to some string and spun them around at high speed…kinda of noise. It also is the time for burning grass. The burning rejuvenates and nourishes the new growth. I have yet to actually witness the actual burning but have spotted the aftermath in several areas. I rather like the beautiful charcoal grey and black strands of texture. 
It seems pretty inflammable stuff at the moment, and there are lots of ‘fire’ tales of old, including not only the fire brigade being called out, but also the likes of the army arriving to help put out fires that have got out of hand. The colour of the landscape at the moment looks lighter then when I left, it looks as though the colour saturation levels have been turned down. Dead stalks of heather seem really bleached out and look like fields of scattered bones; the growing heather appears to have a new silver hew to the branches, its as though they have been sprayed specially silver, as though they were to form a huge Christmas decoration. 
I have been working long hours in the studio which has ensued much pleasure. I am working on a series of large texture sheets that will be stitched together. They will either form a huge map (Jilly’s map) of my walks or they may end up being long pathways, I haven’t quite decided which direction they will finally take yet.I have been using a variety of mediums such as bitumen, peat, ink and graphite. I have set myself the mission of completing this in the next couple of weeks; I really need to feel that I have completed a final artwork. 
I have been back in Northumberland now for over a week, and although in some respects it hurts me to say this, I was really pleased to return to the wilds and remoteness of Highgreen. Returning to Bristol and the hustle and bustle of city life after five months was always going to be somewhat of a jolt to the system; I suppose one cannot always assess just how big jolts will be, until they actually happen. Suffice to say it felt rather large, intense and somewhat blurry. I did however thoroughly enjoy seeing all those I managed to see, and also benefited from having a break from art and all those angst’s that go with it. I return to essentially what will be my busiest period of my residency; there is precisely two months and thirteen days until an exhibition opens celebrating ten years of VARC hosting this residency. All past artists (and of course present) will be creating work especially for the event.
Then, precisely five months and thirteen days away my final exhibition opens. Between those events I also have to complete a commission comprising of forty enamelled tiles. Although panic has not quite entered my domain, I am, lets just say, more than aware of my forthcoming deadlines. I’ve always known that my time here is precious, invaluable and principally my greatest artistic opportunity to date, but going away has made me realise just how precious this all is, and the relative little time left has to be treated like a piece of treasure. I don’t want to contemplate life after Highgreen yet, I want to experience every last drop fully, the here and now, and treasure every moment as though they were my last days on this earth. Weeks 21 and 22 done!