I have been in South Island, New Zealand for three and a half weeks. My other half is on his retirement 'trip of a lifetime'. to the Cook Islands.   I, not keen on hot, humid beaches, get to tag along and remain in South Island whilst OH goes tropical.  Better still, I persuaded son to join us for part of the journey, and to be my companion while OH fulfils his dream. 

I haven't been to New Zealand for 9 years, since my last attempt to work here as a GP locum ended prematurely due to personal challenges at the time. But now I am retired, and this was purely a holiday. A chance to revisit this country that I love so much. One more time......

So many things I had forgotten about. The space, the quiet roads and the colours of the ocean. The sunrises and sunsets, the sounds of the crickets drowning out the birds in the bush. The single lane bridges on many roads, the delightful cafes that serve tea in a teapot with bone china cups. I love it all. 

I had also forgotten how the nature conservancy department is battling continuously against imported predators that destroy the natural vegetation and birds. On every hike we passed many traps and monitoring devices for possums, stoats and rats that do so much harm to the indigenous wildlife and plants. But that's another story, and if you wish to know more, you can read what son has to say on the matter here. He says it so much better than I ever could.

 Three and a half weeks on the road with my other half. That is a long time to be in close company. Away from my studio space and all my art materials. I knew that I would have to work on something creative whilst away, so I am carrying a small box with pencils, crayons, some Japanese paper and a cyanotype kit. 

How do I do cyanotype when travelling and staying in clean modern Airnbs? Good question. 'With difficulty' is the answer. Cyanotype chemicals are seriously blue, and stain everything in sight without a moments hesitation. The biggest challenge was finding a place to be safely messy, and some glass frames. I bought second hand frames from a charity shop, and acquired a large cardboard box to be  messy in from the supermarket. I have attempted wet cyanotypes in several places, but the constraints of keeping everything clean, and the lack of a shady spot to set up was a challenge. I have made several exposures, but as yet none are washed, as I will need to do that in the safe space of my studio, where I can make make as much mess as I like while hanging them out to dry. 

Being on the road makes it difficult to have a meaningful project. I didn't really find a focus for my attention until our last place of stay, when OH had been safely packed off to his tropical island, and son and I settled for a few days in Kaikoura.  We were living right next to a spectacular beach of white limestone. Wonderful formations of folded rock, and some pebble and rocks that looked like porcelain. I was hooked. 

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I have never seen so much white rock. With so many interesting patterns and crevices carved out by history over millions of years. I found myself researching the geology of the area, and learned that the limestone is 50-60 million years old. It is the result of the laying down of sediment layers of tiny marine organisms called foraminifera (there's a word to love...) . When they float they are a component of plankton; something that the many whales in the area consume in vast quantities.

These barely visible creatures have a shell made of calcium carbonate (chalk) , and when they die this gets compressed on the ocean floor over millions of years. Never before have I been so enthralled with the geology of a location. Billions of tiny sea creatures squashed over time into pure white rock. Quite extraordinary in my view.

I searched for images of foraminifera and found some beautiful illustrations on the Picryl website, from the 1904  book of Ernst Haeckel.

Looking at the rocks and pebbles knowing that they were formed from these microscopic sea creatures filled me with a sense of wonder. I spent hours sitting on the beach photographing them, drawing them and observing the tunnels and patterns on their surface created by sea creatures that must have crawled through the sediment many years ago. 

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Nothing makes me happier than a 'project' to work on. It doesn't matter to me what comes out of it. What matters is how much pleasure I gained from exploring the beach and sitting with my chosen stones. My attempts to draw them were hopelessly unrealistic, so I resorted to a 'no pressure' technique of drawing them without looking at the paper. This created some pleasing, rather 'childlike' abstract patterns, that I hope to work with when I return to my studio in Rye. By manipulating them to black and white I am exploring the possibility of  printing the images as photo lithography prints. 

Now I am waiting for a plane to bring me home. OH is safely returned from paradise. Son has flown back to Canada. Normal life looms. 
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As I left the beach abode I felt tears rising. A sign that I found a special place, and also that I had enjoyed special days with my son. 

I thought this was going to be my last trip down under.

Now I am not so sure.......

A new year.

New projects.....

..........gradually coming together from a collection of half formed ideas. Each time I enroll in a course I learn new skills and from these come new ideas. Not necessarily to everyone's taste, but one thing I am sure of right now is that it is the process of creativity that matters most to me, and if someone else enjoys the outcome then that is a bonus.

In February I  spent three days learning how to make a Japanese scroll. 

This is a very niche skill. Not many people choose to give up three days of their life to learn how to glue pages of fine paper together and wrap them in cloth backed with fine kozo 
(mulberry) paper and then lined with decorative paper.

For me this was a burning ambition that is now happily fulfilled. I dream of creating long books that can be layed out or hung from the wall, full of images created with my camera or with sumi-ink.  

I learned to make a scroll under the kind and attentive eye of Lucy May Schofield. 

Lucy describes herself as

'an artist whose intuitive practice explores a somatic relationship to the earth within a palette of light and time. Charting the seasonal shifts through performative interplays with paper and expanded print; a meditation on materials and making as meditation.'

She makes much of her work using the technique of japanese wood cut ( Mokuhanga). The scroll is one of many ways that she presents her work. 

There were ten participants on the course. All had different underlying reasons for attending, and all were female. I don't know what that means.....

Day one had me quite worried. At the end of an exhausting day all that we had done was to choose a piece of fabric and glue a sheet of kozo paper to its reverse. This was to be the cover for the scroll. I could not see how we would finish the whole thing in the time remaining.

Oh me of little faith!

Day two was my birthday.

A birthday made in heaven...... doing something that I have been longing to do for a long time. 

On day two we did wood carving. This was somewhat alarming for one who has a fear of sharp knives. 

Carving a post to fit a hole using a chisel was a challenge mentally. But the sense of satisfaction was enormous, and we celebrated with cake. 

Day three was the bringing together of all the elements; glueing pages together, trimming and glueing the cover, attaching the scroll to the wooden end, and finally adding a decorative ribbon in a very fiddly process also involving a chisel. Much excitement filled the room as we laid out our works of art. 

The making of a traditional scroll is fiddly and labout intensive. But the resulting structure is a wonderful way to tell a story with images. The images are gradually revealed, and the linear layout is very different to viewing pages in a book. The whole thing can be viewed in its entirety, or small portions can be revealed and concealed. 

So do I really think I will have the patience to make another?

I am honestly not sure, but I really do wish to try. If not, I may well create something more contemporary. Like any new skill. once you understand the basic principles it is allowed to break the rules and go off-piste down your own personal rabbit hole. 

Here is some work by Cas Holmes  based on fabric rather than paper that embraces the  joining together of 'pages' in a vertical display. 

On a more photographic note here is some work that I saw recently by the Canadian artist Lotus Kang at MOMA in New York.

Enormous sheets of photographic film draped over bars.... another modern variation on a traditional theme. I enjoy the sculptural nature of the work. 

Something will come out of this...... of that I am certain..........

I just don't yet know what.

But I am taking Japanese paper and cyanotype chemicals with me on my next adventure, and that will be a start.