An unfurling, a cluster, an awakening, a renewal, a memory.

 

It's January 28th.  The end of January is in sight.  I don't usually prescribe to this 94 days of January thing, but bloody hell, the constant rain, the fog, the GREY; it's definitely getting me down this year.  I see from my snaps on my phone, that last January/February was much brighter. However!  Today was sunny and my hyacinths are coming through.  I usually have a couple in these bulb vases as I love to see the roots reaching downwards.  

I love the smell of hyacinths, it's that Proustian thing.... takes me right back to my youth.  I remember my mum used to put them under the sink just before Christmas and then around mid January there would be little shoots of a very pale green.  Out they would come and by my birthday (4th Feb) they would smell beautiful. The days would start to get longer and then Spring would be here..... full of promise, excitement, hope for the coming months.  I am not sure the thing about my birthday is right, but in my memory that is what happened. So there!

Now, although I don't do that under the sink thing, I do like to have hyacinths at the end of January that are going to make February smell delightful.  I like these bulb vases because I like to watch the roots.  I love the way the flower is in that bulb. That magic that reaches up and grasps the light. All in that small shape.  

Some sketchbook musings.  

As it's been sunny today, I have been at the allotment. Hooray!  I cleaned up the studio and did some quick sketches.  Will get going on some monoprints tomorrow.  I think rain is forecast again.  Boo.  

Still it's cosy in my studio with the fire lit. 

Will update tomorrow.  

Golden Angles.

Back of the Sunflower!  I'm going to make a collograph.  I have had these sunflowers for over two weeks now and they are still standing, but they smell like a going off cauliflower!  I think they will have to go in the compost now.  Shame.  I've really enjoyed them.  

These sunny and joyful plants (as I am always saying) are of course proper plant allies!  They give us those gorgeous seeds, which I love and the birds in my garden love too.  I've just been watching "my" coaltit having a mid morning snack in the garden.  

Interestingly..... and I mean I see a pattern when I'm looking at them ..... the arrangement of the florets is at the golden angle.  Now I'm not an mathematician (grade 3 CSE, good grief) but I love a bit of an equation.  They're pleasing to look at I think!  

${\displaystyle \theta =n\times {137.5}^{\circ },}$

(where θ is the angle, r is the radius or distance from the centre, and n is the index number of the floret and c is a constant scaling factor)

This is the Golden Angle.  At this point I'm going to quote Wikipedia because trying to remember this is just beyond my addled capabilities.

"Generally, each floret is oriented toward the next by approximately the golden angle, 137.5°, producing a pattern of interconnecting spirals, where the number of left spirals and the number of right spirals are successive Fibonacci numbers. Typically, there are 34 spirals in one direction and 55 in the other; however, in a very large sunflower head there could be 89 in one direction and 144 in the other. This pattern produces the most efficient packing of seeds mathematically possible within the flower head."

I've taken out the citations, but you can look it up if you need to!  

Also, I have found out that the myth that they turn to face the sun as the day goes on,  isn't exactly true.  Which is good to know, because I have some small lemon coloured sunflowers in my allotment and I noticed that they weren't facing the sun, and I wondered why.  To quote the gardener John Gerard:

 

"[some] have reported it to turn with the Sun, the which I could never observe, although I have endeavored to find out the truth of it."

If you look at a field full of sunflowers, they will be all pointing the same way.  That way is East!  They like to warm up in the morning sun as this attracts more pollinators.  

When the flower is young, it is heliotropic, in that it follows the sun from East to West as the day progresses but a fully mature flower will only face East.  

Another interesting sunflower fact is that they were domesticated in Mexico 2600 BCE.  I am also pleased to report, that like many of the flowers I write about, it is helpful for snakebites!
 
Traditionally, several Native American groups planted sunflowers on the north edges of their gardens as a "fourth sister" to the better-known three sisters* combination of maize, beans and squash.  Among the Zuni people (I had to look this up... they are North American Indians from the Zuni Valley), the fresh or dried root is chewed by the medicine man before sucking venom from a snakebite and applying a poultice to the wound.  This poultice of the root is used for rattlesnake bites.

*Anecdotally, people at the allotment this year said that their small beans didn't do so well because it was too hot.  Mine were planted behind the sweetcorn and were great.  The shade helped them survive.

Sunflowers and other lovely late summer memories - Joyful autumn

Today is grey and rainy.  Still after the gorgeous but very dry summer we have had, I shouldn't moan.  I have come down to my studio and lit a fire today.  It's so lovely to be back here.  The summer was taken up with my allotment.  As usual in early Autumn, Aldi has bunches of Sunflowers!  Can never resist.

Of course, I have been drawing them.  Not very well, in my opinion but I will persevere!

I have taken loads of photographs and realise I quite like the back of the flower actually.  They really are the sunshine flower, just full of life, yellow and joy!

This summer I started drawing flowers that are known as "plant allies" in that they are useful to us.  This was the plan, although it applies to almost anything that grows in our countryside.  Obviously some are not allies (unless you want to poison someone ha ha), but an amazing amount of the common wildflowers are really useful.   I drew elder flowers and then elderberries.  I haven't followed up any of this making delicious cordials or helpful medicines to ward off colds or anything remotefully useful!  

In August I attended a workshop at West Yorkshire Print Studios with Stephen Fowler.  Tetra pak printing!  It was great and I learnt loads. I made one of an elderflower and am going to make some more of other plants I have drawn in my sketchbook. 

Concertina sketchbook.  Tried to take a panoramic pic but it didn't work. 

Stephen Fowler @stephenfowlerrubberstamper on insta and my lovely friend Bobby. 

 

Lady's mantle and women's work.

Alchamilla vulgaris or Lady's Mantle.

The cupped leaves collect dew drops.  This pure water was used

by alchemists for their potions. 

My most recent artist statement reads: "My work is process led; I am often pleasantly surprised with the marks I have made.  I prefer it this way because I am referencing our connection with the natural world, which, as we know is never consistent or rigid. 

I started drawing flowers a few years back. I found a collection of pressed flowers at my old home, that my mother had made.  I made a few monoprints referencing this collection and from there I started thinking about real, live flowers. Now I am excited about the allotment that I have recently acquired. It’s full of apple trees, it’s full of dappled light in the sunshine.  Hopefully, it’s full of potential! I want my art to be joyful, which is how I feel when I go there. I hope people feel the same way when they look at my work.

 At the heart of this, there is also the worry that this will not always be here, because of the lack of awareness of how we relate to the land. I wonder if people realise that if we had no worms or no bees, then we wouldn’t have food. Without plants, we wouldn’t survive."

Over the years, it hasn't changed much.  My interests and concerns are very much the same, but obviously, my methods might have developed and my processes are expanding.  I think the last paragraph is the crux of my beliefs and the sadness I feel that people are divorced from the food they eat, the way it grows, the good these plants do and how we are wasting our most precious resources.

Back in 2011 (Looking back on this blog) I see that my interest was examining my place in the world and my personal history.  In context, I was looking at the things I had collected and trying to work out what and why I had collected them.  Dried flowers, shells, spirograph etc.  Now I think (is this because I'm now a grown ass woman- post menopausal?! ergo: a CRONE/HAG (Sharon Blackie prefers Hag, as crone is a bit too sweet.) I am looking outwards, thinking about how I can encourage a wider understanding of our/my place in the world.  I think, to be fair, that attitudes are gradually changing ( New gsce Natural History)  although I absolutely despair at the plastic lawns and plastic hedges that spring up around my area.  Can't they ban plastic lawns ffs.  

The hedgerows are calling!  I have become interested in the old, the ancestors, the healer, the Wise Woman.  Many books have inspired me but Robin Wall Kimmerer - Braiding Sweetgrass and Sharon Blackie If Women Rose Rooted have really been inspiring.  

Again from my blog  "If you haven't read "Braiding Sweetgrass" I think you should.  It's about the relationship we have with the earth, its ecology, the relationship the indigenous peoples of North America have with the living world and how plants and animals are our oldest teachers.  She is a botanist and a poet.  The writing is beautiful. "

https://goodreads.com/book/show/17465709-braiding-sweetgrass

In If Women Rose Rooted, Sharon Blackie is calling out for the "rewilding of womanhood; reclaiming our role as guardians of the land."  Because from where I'm standing the men haven't made a brilliant job of it, have they?  

https://www.waterstones.com/book/if-women-rose-rooted/sharon-blackie/9781912836017

I think I started realising that there must be another way, and that maybe a bit of old fashioned 'witch-craft' might be the way forward actually.  We know, from history, that women were always the ones that dealt with birth and death and with healing and that this was knowingly forced away from them.  Whether it was witch burnings in the past or belittling, shaming and abusing that we see now, we know that women have, historically, been the keepers of the Earth and should rise up and take control again.  So I want to tell more stories of plants that have healed and that go on healing. Whether it's from the mindful joy of looking at them or making tinctures,  ointments and oils, they all have stories to tell. 

If you look back at this blog you will see some of these stories. 

https://anitagwynn.blogspot.com/2018/01/updated-writings-about-plants-i-am.html

I am looking at new ways of printing and maybe making a book or a scroll but this is all to be worked out and I'm only on day 2 of this adventure.   So onwards and upwards as I like to say.....

This weekend! And Verbascum thapus (Mullein).

 It's the Art Trail this weekend and here I am getting ready to take my stuff over later today.  

It's always nerve racking when you're about to present yourself and your work to the world at large.  Suddenly you doubt yourself, but I'm sure it will be ok!

Creative Social (a group that aims to get Creatives together socially to support each other) described my work "Anita Gwynn will be showcasing her delicate and evocative botanical monotypes at 5 Higher School St - a must see for nature lovers".  So that was lovely. 

The Art's Trail catalogue says "Anita started drawing flowers after finding a collection of pressed flowers at her childhood home.  Using this collection, made by her mother, she made a series of monotypes and from then on started drawing wildflowers".

My new work has changed a bit, in that I have now included my allotment and related subjects, so not quite just wildflowers this time, although one of my bigger pieces is Mullein, (Verbascum thapsus) which was growing magnificiently in Nog Lane a couple of years ago.  It can grow really tall and has lovely velvety and soft leaves.   If the mullein moth caterpillar finds it, it decimates in quick time!!  I love the tall spires of yellow flowers and the gorgeous soft sage green leaves.  

It has many other names such as Beggar's blanket, Herb blanket, Candleflower, Cuddy's Lungs, Feltwort....  The lung reference is because it is meant to be very beneficial to people who have given up smoking and to those who suffer from asthma.  It is also good for UTIs, ear-ache, anti-inflamatory, an all round good plant, I'd say!

And here she is, in all her glory.   I have a couple of little seedlings in my garden, from this very plant.  I think they take a year or two to get going, so hopefully I will have some in my garden next year. 

Coming up!

Not long now until the Saltaire Arts Trail. It runs May 24th/25th/26th 10 am - 5 pm.   This year I will be at 5 Higher School Street, Saltaire, which is just off Victoria Road, so very central and easy to find if you're in the village, even if you think you haven't heard of it before!  I will be showing new work, which is mostly referencing my allotment and the surrounding area.  Let's face it, I'm an old lady now and my allotment is my happy place! It's so lovely to sit there with the birds and the almost quiet, with a bit of view over Baildon  Moor.  

I have produced some monotypes which you will be able to see over the weekend.  

  

I found this poem, as you do when you start trawling.  Sometimes it's a gem and well worth sharing so that you can go back and look at it.  There's so much shite .... and you know, once you're on the "Ten Celebrities you didn't know were gay" vibe.... you're done for.  So stick with the lovely stuff and don't be distracted.

April has been lovely. Saltaire Art's Trail mentioned too. May 24/25/26

My allotment has become very important to me this Spring!  I mean, once you start, you have to look after it and if you want to keep it, you need to look as if you're working on it and actually growing stuff.  Luckily, it's been a gorgeous April and I have spent a lot of time up there.  I have been blessed with lots of apple trees and they are now coming into glorious blossom.  I have made a pond to attract and help wildlife and it's all starting to look more like mine, rather than somebody else's.  Of course, it did belong to somebody else before me and they did a fantastic job, so I kind of owe it to them to look after it.  

Sometimes I take my sketchbook up there and it's lovely to sit in the sun and draw.  It's a good way to document this time in my life too. 

Broad beans and raspberry canes.  Not sure what the currant bush is yet.  We will see.... blackcurrant or whitecurrant?

So it's not surprising that some of my new work is based around growing and the new space I find myself in.  You will be able to view this new work at the Saltaire Art's Trail, where I will be on 24/25/26th May at 5 Higher School Street, Saltaire.    More about this nearer the time, but get it in your diaries! 

Meanwhile here is a new monotype/collograph:  Greenhouse with Nettles.  It's at the framers and I might change the title yet. 

Bradford based artist webpage.

 https://www.notjusthockney.info/gwynn-anita/

I've been added to this Bradford website.  Click on the link for a potted history!

Quick update.

 

Been trying out watercolour monoprinting, Rudbekia on the right here. Thinking of doing a series of these over the next week.  I have also been using the press to make some prints inspired by the apple trees on the allotment (left).  I have a number of things on the go in the studio and will be working hard for the Saltaire Arts Trail again this year.  May 24/25th this year.  

Lots of ideas, just need to get on with them!

Updated Artist's statement (with a slightly irritated tone!)

 

My artistic practice focuses on drawing and printmaking. I build up the print in layers, sometimes using collagraphs and stencils.

 

My work is process led; I am often pleasantly surprised with the marks I have made.  I prefer it this way because I am referencing our connection with the natural world, which, as we know is never consistent or rigid. 

 

I started drawing flowers a few years back. I found a collection of pressed flowers at my old home, that my mother had made.  I made a few monoprints referencing this collection and from there I started thinking about real, live flowers. Now I am excited about the allotment that I have recently acquired. It’s full of apple trees, it’s full of dappled light in the sunshine.  Hopefully, it’s full of potential! I want my art to be joyful, which is how I feel when I go there. I hope people feel the same way when they look at my work.

 

At the heart of this, there is also the worry that this will not always be here, because of the lack of awareness of how we relate to the land. I wonder if people realise that if we had no worms or no bees, then we wouldn’t have food. Without plants, we wouldn’t survive. 

As I say… onwards and upwards.