last year, i wrote that i planned to make a winter visit to constable country. well, dear reader, i did make a special visit to 'Constable country' in early march, which as any British person or Englishman will unhappily remind you if asked, still felt like the depths of winter. it was a bright day, on the cusp between winter and spring, the trees were still bare of leaves but the many surrounding fields were a vibrant shade of green with the sowings of winter wheat.
Willy Lott's cottage, Flatford Mill, March 2012i was very pleased the two ducks stopped waddling briefly for this photograph by the glassy millpond at flatford mill, but i was disappointed the glare of the sun burnt out the white fluffy clouds. the owners of Flatford Mill (now a field studies centre) must work very hard to preserve this iconic English pastoral scene so that visitors can say how wonderfully it still resembles the famous painting nearly two hundred years later.here is a small reminder of the painting...
The Hay Wain, 1821 © National Gallery, Londonand here is my 'impromptu' contemporary reference to the hay wain...
a toy farm trailer in a farm trailer, round about noon, early september 2011...and so began a very pleasant circular walk around flatford, firstly across a lush green meadow, meeting with some inquisitive sheep...
[in the (brief) company of wolves]i had heard that in 'Constable country' there are powers in place to minimise unsightly blots on the landscape such as electricity pylons, but it was only a few minutes into our walk (after the brief encounter with the 'wolves') when i looked up and saw this...
[an electricity pylon & power lines spanning constable country]no matter; i was here for the day to walk about and maybe sketch a little, to see some 'Constable' scenery...we passed by and walked around a lovely old woodland, called 'the grove' - and we didn't meet any other walkers along the path. i made a note of this old, weathered tree stump (below, sketched from two angles) as perhaps being an old hawthorn as it was very tightly gnarled and twisted but was also quite small compared to the other trees. these are two very quick sketches. sketching tree forms such as this feels much like gestural life-drawing; you work within the restraints given and you try not to be too 'precious' about it.
two more very quick bark/tree sketch studies, in graphite, drawn while standing...further on, the landscape opened out and i made some notes of the field names (based on the map). the second sketch is a view looking down a hill back towards flatford mill. the third sketch is looking at the wide expanse of dedham vale, with gibbonsgate field, miller's field and church field.
three sketches, a winter hedgerow and some green fields...towards the end of the walk we met a dog walker, or rather his two dogs made their keen acquaintances with us - and shortly after that i found this large piece of metal detritus on the perimeter of a ploughed field - a very mangled, flattened tin bucket - and i considered it to be the finest 'Constable country' find of the day.
a constable country souvenir, a very mangled, flattened tin bucket (verso)it was a very pleasant, relaxing walk (with afternoon tea taken later on in the day at a delightful Dedham teashop), but it was not possible to walk far and also find time to draw; so, i enjoyed the walking.it was also nice to take another peek into one of John Constable's early sketchbooks online (collection of the V&A Museum, London). Constable's many studies and sketches were invaluable visual resources throughout his career. after Constable moved to London with his wife (and a fast-expanding family) he only returned to Suffolk for a few days or weeks each summer (which would explain the distinct lack of winter landscapes), although he travelled quite extensively throughout England due to painting commissions. on one occasion, while working on his preparatory studies for The Hay Wain, Constable required a sketch of a hay cart, and a young Johnny Dunthorne (the teenage son of a friend back in Suffolk) was duly sent out to make an initial study which Constable could work from and refine back in his Hampstead studio. i can quite understand the artistic frustration of earnestly painting a summer scene in the winter months, and many miles away from its source.by all accounts, painting the The Hay Wain was an anxious task for Constable, a difficult and slow to resolve painting, hastily completed for The Royal Academy summer exhibition - but that is far from most people's minds as they gaze into the romantic, pastoral quietude of the scene. i think most painters will empathise with that particular anxiety of making work for art exhibitions. add to that anxiety, that his young wife was expecting their third child (they had seven children together in total), and they were perhaps conscious of outgrowing their new hampstead home, as well as the ever-present difficulty of making an income from art to support his young family.it was amusing to read that they had to remove a window from the property to deliver the finished painting to Somerset House (the location of the Royal Academy at that time) - although the painting was (probably) not completely finished, as - as was the custom - artists often completed their paintings in situ in the gallery on varnishing days (aware of the competition!). Constable was anxious that this painting would sincerely impart all he felt about nature and the landscape, and that it would make a good impression at a time when the fashion in painting was for the very grand, the mythical, the historical & the dramatic...I hear little of landscape - and why? The Londoners with all their ingenuity as artists know nothing of the feeling of country life (the essence of landscape) - any more than a hackney coach horse knows of pasture.John Constable, in a letter to John Fisher (a good friend and patron), dated 1st April 1821, shortly before completion of the painting Landscape, Noon later to become more widely known as The Hay Wain, a title first suggested by John Fisher.John Constable was born on this day, 11th June, 1776....see also, in constable country and on thinking, clouds in a sketchbook