Week 50

Here is my week 50 page. We had a surprise when we woke up to snow last Friday.  Huge snowflakes were falling and it all looked like we were going to be a snow scene.  Thick clouds covered the hills.  As the morning progressed it stopped snowing, the clouds lifted and the views were spectacular. I wanted to photograph the day for my blog and decided this could also be my collecting walk, so off we went.  The photographer took the first photograph from the top of the temporary railway bridge.  Meanwhile I dashed down the steps to the shore, feeling like an excited child because of this.

It was just so beautiful walking with the blue sky and the sunshine on this crisp clear day.  The Lakeland mountains looked like a postcard.  The oyster catchers and gulls flying over the water. We walked up to the stony beach past the limestone barrier.  The sand was very wet and sloppy but it was here in the little puddles that I collected the tiny pale coloured shells. The huge white Mountain across the sands seemed to rise up out of the ground with such majesty with its clean white covering and the mist clinging  to the lower valleys.  The sky looked so blue,  it felt so still,  so calm,  so beautiful.

Slowly the tide crept across the shore.  We pottered around like a pair of children as I collected my shells and bits of seaweed and my husband enjoyed capturing the day.  Several trains rumbled past us, faces look out of the carriage windows. The sand was really soft and sloppy, as my feet sink into the sand I felt the panic,  childhood memories of the sinky sands, back onto more solid land!

We walked back along the edge of the tidal river as the water slowly filled into the estuary, now the highest tides are over it was a gentle calm movement contained within the river banks.  I saw some extra long lengths of seaweed, up to six feet and too big for my pages! Then we found the large pine cone washed onto the shore.  Each week I always wonder what will I find, each week something new and exciting is delivered for me.  We left after two hours, the sun had gone, clouds again building up and the day turning darker and a drop in the temperature. Last photographs as we left about 3 pm.

So here is my page for week 50.  I did a pencil drawing of the large pine cone and lots of the little shells.  Then I added the seaweeds and finally the five red berries.  The pine cone is a pencil drawing and the other objects I have used the acrylic inks and a fine brush. 

just the berries to add

Hope you enjoyed seeing the snow, it has mostly gone now, I am glad we captured the day.  Hope you like the page for week 50.  Thank you for the lovely comments.   I would like to say  to all  my readers,  "Happy Christmas and have a wonderful time". 
I will be down on the shore collecting at some point in the weekend!                     Millyx

Week 49

Here is my double page for Week 49.  I have spent many hours working on the detail of the objects but I am really pleased with the finished pages.  After the walk on Saturday I sat by the warmth of the fire and started by sketching the six mermaids purses and the green piece of seaweed with lots of wavy roots. I thought I would give you a glimpse into the workings of this week when I discovered I had been captured on film!  I sit curled up in the chair balancing my board on my knee and the chair arm whilst also  juggling the plate with the inks  as I am drawing.  The washed objects are placed on another plate for me to observe.  I listen to the radio and at times join in when my memory triggers off an old favourite from my past.   It feels so nice to just sit and paint and watch the work develop across the page.  The wind whistles off the sea and the hailstone showers bash against the windows but I am totally relaxed and  engrossed in my drawings,  the hours fly by.

The objects were all washed and then chosen and added to my pages.   I had six different Mermaids purses, each one a different colour and shape,  the really pale ones were transparent and their long coiled dangling strings always fascinate me.  Often when I find them they are tangled up with other objects and I often have to pull them apart  and unravel  the threads.   I was equally fascinated with the mass of long thread like roots on the sea weeds  and the barnacles growing on the stem of the piece of seaweed. 


There was another  plate full of objects that I had collected,  it was hard to choose,  but somehow they made the decision for me because of how they looked together.  I loved all the red berries which had rolled into the corner by the green holly leaf....a real festive look. Then the darker shapes of the two brown leaves just looked lovely next to the tiny delicate pink shells and the blue mussel shell,  perfect for finishing the page.  I spent three days  carefully painting and I do like the interesting shapes and it turned out just as I hoped it would.

So, when it was time to photograph the work for the blog I have to search for the brightest place in these dark and gloomy days.   Here I am on the floor arranging the objects hopefully for some good interesting photographs to be taken by the ever so patient  photographer.

I will post a few more of his pictures of Saturday showing the sprinkle of snow on the hills and the dark clouds which gave us the hailstone showers later on.   We were well wrapped up and enjoyed the walk and I found so many things to draw.   We saw the black rooks pecking at the ground, a curlew fly over and the many gulls.  My husband shouted me over to see what he had found, it was the eel which I am holding and he also discovered some more pieces of blue and white china for me.  I picked up every red berry I saw,  they are now a deeper colour and many are looking quite damaged just as the holly leaf has pieces missing.  The little pink shells seemed to be scattered all along the sand and I was pleased to find a mussel shell.  I could have collected so many beautiful leaves but I just chose two and I won't tell you how many feathers I collected!

As we are leaving the shore at 3pm Saturday.
Hope you like Week 49.

Thank you for the comments, it is  always lovely to read them.  Millyx

   

Week 48

As I sit here posting my week 48 I am listening to the hailstones lashing against the windows straight off the sea shore.  We woke up to our first snow, the hills are white and we had a little sprinkling in the garden.  I knew how cold it felt on Saturday as I walked along the shore and felt the chill of the wind blowing from the west. The only part of me that was exposed and  really felt the cold was my face, it made my eyes stream and tears rolled down my cheeks, and later I knew it had chapped my lips.  My head was wrapped in my merino wool buff  and the hood of my windproof jacket.  My warm lined trousers and wool socks kept my legs and feet warm.  And I thought it was such a good idea to wear wellies to keep my feet dry.   A pair of gloves protected my fingers from the cold and off I went in search of something to draw.

I thought I would share the route I walk each week,  the  photographs show the view off the bridge as I enter the shore, then  to the left in the direction of the open sea where I go first. 

At this point after the barrier of limestone  boulders  I reached the sand and land out to the open sea.  I found the two bones here, the only remains of an animal, probably a sheep.  It is here that I often find other objects trapped between the rocks and in the sand.  So I  picked my way up the beach only to get a nasty surprise as something sharp pieced through the rubber sole and my sock and into my foot.  I thought it must be glass but I could only find sharp jagged rocks, the slate which is quarried in the village.  I sat on a huge boulder and examined my bleeding wound and wrapped it up with a clean tissue.  With my bag of bones I bravely carried on.....thinking at this point that I have probably lost the plot....try explaining this to the Doctor. 

As I walk back towards the railway station the sky looks very dramatic,  some shafts of light from the sunshine look amazing.  The view is always changing, I think that is one of the reasons I always love this place.

After the high tides I see all the wavy tide lines lines with  all the little pieces collected in the tangle of grasses.   I collected a crabs claw,  a sea sponge,  feathers,  two mermaids purses  and a long thin piece of seaweed with little white barnacles attached.   My page is sorted,  I have plenty to choose from.   It makes me smile seeing all the objects  as I wander along  my way, a lost shoe,  a full family packet of crisps,  a huge red buoy,  a bright yellow fish crate,  toy balls, a golf tee and so many other objects all landed here on our shores.

The sky is getting darker, a few little squally showers, more drifting our way and after two hours it is time for me to leave.

Here is my week 48 pages of my objects.  First the piece of sea weed, painted with a fine Number 1 brush and green and sepia ink.

The two  bones,  a mermaids purse, and piece of sea sponge.  The bones made an interesting subject.  As I was drawing the page a friend dropped in and told me they are parts of a shoulder and a leg.   He knows about bones as he is a radiographer,  and  he wasn't in the least bit surprised to find me sitting drawing bones on a Sunday afternoon!  I used yellow ochre, sepia, white and grey inks to mix colours for this page.   Hope you like it.   I am so pleased, just 4 more weeks and I will have completed the year!
 Thank you for the lovely comments, I love to read them and welcome to the new followers.        Millyx

Week 46

Week 46 is a drawing of a dead bird.  We think it is a Carrion Crow. 
I was wondering what I might find to draw as we closed the gate and stepped onto the shore.  The light was poor as the blanket of grey clouds shielded the daylight.  The days are getter darker and often we need to switch on a lamp in the afternoon.  The tide was low and not due until later so we wandered along the banking with just a thin winding river.  I could trace the height of the tide by the patterns in the sand.  It seemed that there were only small fragments of seaweed and a few tiny shells stuck in the sand.
I could see a dark object in the grass, as I walked towards it I saw feathers scattered all around and knew what I would find.  It was a  dark bird, on its back with its eyes pecked out and revealing patches of pink flesh on the head.  The feet were contorted and made a dramatic shape with the sharp claws.  It was very much dead, perhaps shot or savaged by another animal.  I am quite used to seeing dead birds, drowned sheep and other signs of death, skulls and bones seawashed and the many crabs in the estuary.

We walked on and reached the boulders. The vast expanse of sand looked slippery and sloppy with deep footprints to prove it.  The boulders at sealevel are now very green and slimey,  leaves were stuck to the surface and trapped between the cracks and crevices.  I collected some black leaves, a few tiny shells and small pieces of seaweeds.  I  looked out to sea and realised how low the grey clouds felt.
I found some black feathers, my mind returned to the dead bird.  I felt that was my page but knew I couldn't take it home, so we returned and photographed it and I studied it long and hard before we walked on.

We wandered along my usual route.  The place reflects the time of year, dead dried plants, a silence and a greyness. The birds are few and far between,  not much life here any more.  The sea like a garden seems to have its seasons, and at this time of the year there is little to show for the tides.  The trains thunder past with lights on, each sends out a blast of air.  I felt a shiver with a slight chill to the air.  There is much activity as the workers sand blast the old metal bridge.  I nervously crossed the very high temporary bridge but stop to see the views from the top.  My head is trying to work out how I can best draw the bird.

It was a fascinating subject as I worked from the photographs,  my observations,  memory and knowledge of feathers.  I used the fine black ink pens, Uni pin by Mitsubishi, point 1, 2 and 3, which are water and fade proof pigment ink.  I am not advertising,  just  answering the questions I usually get about what materials I use.   I really enjoy working with ink pens, I love to draw and had forgotten how much I love working with pens and how lovely they are for recording the fine details.    Hope you like the bird.  I recorded two of the black feathers I found  on the second page.

I really like how it turned out.   Hope you do too.  Now just six weeks to go in my year recording my weekly shore finds.  I will need to be thinking of a new project.
As always thank you for the kind people who leave a comment, I always enjoy reading them.    Millyx

All photographs by my husband.   If you wish to use  my drawings,  please ask and  please respect my ownership and be kind enough to link back to my blog.    Thank you.