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. 

Nobody that I know really understood what I meant when I said that I was going on a course to learn abstract calligraphy. It is very hard to describe.

Even I was unsure what I was letting myself in for when I booked to go to Tuscany for a week's workshop on the meeting of eastern and western calligraphic styles with Monica Dengo and Satsuki Hatsushima, from Italy and Japan respectively.

Ten days before I was due to set off I got a severe case of cold feet. I was worried by the programme notes that described a visit to view handwriting styles in medieval manuscripts at the local Sansepolcro archive. It sounded deadly serious, and far removed from what I had in mind from my knowledge of Monica's work.

I almost cancelled, but fortunately had my mind put at ease by a fellow photographer who happened to be doing the workshop 2 weeks ahead of me.

In order to get there I passed through Florence. I have never been to Florence, so decided to to take two days to explore the city before catching my train eastwards to Arezzo, and then Sansepolcro.

I knew Florence has a reputation for being busy. I had not realised how busy. I found myself heading away from the city centre, across the river, to the Boboli Gardens for a bit of peace and quiet. I found the strangest of lemons in the lemon garden.

I also found some beautiful roses with a perfect backdrop of washed blue paint. I was happy.

Obviously, there is a lot of very important art to see in Florence. On day two, having walked my legs off, I summoned the energy to face the Uffizi Gallery. I know practically nothing about Renaissance art. Michelangelo and  Botticelli were the only names that I really knew; two spectacularly famous artists, that I had never really appreciated other than when reading, many years ago, 'The Agony and the Ecstasy', the 1961 biographical novel about Michelangelo, written by Irving Stone.

I still remember vividly the story describing Michelangelo, as a boy, being given a large block of marble and chipping away at it from the outside in to create a figure.  I find this extraordinary; to have a vision of the outcome and be able to gradually work to achieve it by a process of removal rather than by addition as in so many other forms of art.

I found the art works in the Uffizi Gallery vibrant and beautiful, and was glad that I went as I can't see myself returning to a city where it is difficult to negotiate the streets due to the crowds.

Onwards then, to the real reason for my trip.

To Sansepolcro, a peaceful, walled, 11th century commune, with cobbled streets and some more famous art. This time by Pierro della Francesca. Another famous artist that I had never heard of, who lived and died in Sansepolcro.

To the arts centre where I found a room beautifully laid out ready for 16 participants, with walls to die for in pastel shades of plaster and paint.

And so began seven days of joy.

Exhausting and intense, but filled with laughter , experimentation and production.

We made marks in the traditional Japanese way, in a traditional western italic style, and then blended the two in many different ways.

Between lessons I feasted on peaches, tomatoes, mozarella and meatballs. Mascarpone and cantucci. Japanese snacks and plenty of herbal tea.

We made marks to different soundtracks.

I looked at the outcomes and knew that my family would think I was mad.

They were expecting traditional calligraphy.

The medieval manuscripts were old and fancy, and unlike those in the UK, I was surprised  that we were allowed to touch them. This was said to be because the content of these ancient ledgers was of no great historic significance.

I  looked at them for a while, and then wandered off to look at the walls downstairs.

What I hadn't realised from reading my daily programme was how exciting the next visit would be. A visit to the Burri museum a few miles away in Cita di Castello.

Well, not really a museum. More of an extraordinary modern art collection housed in an old tobacco drying warehouse. The work of just one local artist; Alberto Burri. I had never heard of him. Ignorance is my specialty.

Correctly named as the  Fondazione Palazzo Albizzini Collezione Burri » Ex Seccatoi del Tabacco, the building was vast. The art was dramatic and themed by colour.

I soaked it all up. Black, black and gold, multicoloured ; each in vast rooms that eventually became overwhelming, but which definitely impacted my work later in the week. The simplicity appealed immensely.

As the week progressed our tables became stacked with a multitude of papers covered in ink. Different papers, different tools. Many different styles and looks.

I was happiest with my marks made with a feather.

I also spent a long time experimenting with ways to write the word mountain as an ideogram, using western letters but in a Japanese style.

Meanwhile, Satsuki wrote the word 'mountain' with a very large brush in Japanese style onto brown paper, working on the floor.

I think my family would understand this a bit better.

By the end of the week we had turned some of our many papers and writings into hand made books. This was a challenge in such a short space of time.

Normally my books are the product of many hours thinking and experimenting. Some take months to make. The books I made in Sansepolcro were different, in that they were not created with any important message to convey. What they did do was to convey my own personal take on the ideas that we had assimilated during the week.

And what does all this have to do with being an 'outdoor' photographer? Obviously not much...... but......

It is a fine example of the pleasure to be had by jumping out of a particular creative 'box' into a new one; of the joy of trying new things, and of learning new techniques that feed new ideas. It is also a way to meet a wonderful bunch of people from all around the world.

The adventure was also a reminder that cold feet are normal when stepping out of one's comfort zone, and to just 'do it' anyway. Son would have told me that if I had asked.....

And when son asks me whether I have become less fit for our upcoming alpine adventure during my week of messing around with ink on paper, I can tell him that whilst having so much fun I also found time to do a little workout every day in my rooftop apartment. Just don't tell the landlady that I used the bedspread as my yoga mat.

Despite not being 'up' a mountain I felt on top of the world.

And finally, don't tell ANYONE that I never made it to see the artworks by Piero della Francesca in the Civic Museum. They would be truly shocked......

I did find a wonderful vegetable garden on the city wall though. The artichokes were spectacular!