today i made the journey to salthouse, firstly to visit the church and measure up my allocated space within the church for salthouse 09.. these exhibition bays measure about a metre wide and are a foot deep..
but really, it was the salt marshes that were beckoning me, all honeyed with the softest of grasses gently swaying on a seemingly bright and breezy day....
a short walk across to the sea, past twine-ravelled wire fences, bristling reeds, grasses, past the looping clay beds and swathes of shallow salty pools..
colours appeared melted, slightly dissolved, dusted by time and history; the dusky greys, blues and browns of mud and sea lavender, shimmering rivers of silt..
then, as the sparse landscape opened outwards to the sea, and i slowly trudged the steep defence embankment of pebbled shingle, what was left of the marsh faded away from view, the grey sky loomed large like a veil, and for a brief moment it seemed as if it was not just the edge of the land but the world that i was moving towards, and then a sliver of slate grey sea appeared, fusing land with sky..
then, as i looked downwards at the pebbles on the beach suddenly the wind whipped up in reponse, nipping at my ears, forehead and nose, pushing me towards the froth and foam.. moments later the rain came down in heavy dark slices, sharp and biting, spitefully prickling my cheeks to numbness..
and so this angry cloudburst forced me back inland, rushing, drenched and very, very cold..
a painter's view?driving back i thought more about my proposed work; the curator hopes it will be very colourful. perhaps i am a bit of a colourist and experiencing this landscape the colours i see on my palette are looking more restrained, faded - sea grey, rust, putty, olive, khaki, heather, moss, mustard, amber, bone, wet clay, brick dust, bark, willow, tarnished copper, dark peat, ash..