Andrea has gone to Olympia to see the Horse show. Leaving Jack, Finlay and me to fend for our selves! I knew if I didn't do anything with the kids there would be trouble on Andreas' return. The weather was cold and dry today so I dragged the kids for a walk down Shibden.
Walking down Shibden Head Lane heading down into Hangingroyd we were soon off tarmac and on paths that I've walked on all my life. The kids are already well familiar with the valley and we played a game where I give them 'Mini Missions', they score points on completion. Climbing Trees - 10 Points. Getting across the Beck without getting wet - 20 Points. It kept them entertained!
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| Shibden |
Heading down we were soon at the 'Cross Becks'. When I was Jack and Finlays age a huge old ash tree grew on the bank above the stream, it blew down probably 20 years ago and still lays their, slowly rotting, it's grand past now only memories. There is a Geocache here and the kids soon found it, confirming that it's still where it should be. The dog ran around, smelling rabbits and foxes, it was in the undergrowth on it's own private adventure. I stood and considered everything in front of me, it's a special place for me, I have a strong connection with the 'Cross Becks'. This was my childhood playground.....
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| Jack and Finlay |
We moved on heading towards the 'Big Wall', normally I'd stay in the bottom of the valley and walk towards the bridge, but today we headed out of the bottom and along the top edge of the steep valley. Lots for the kids to do up here, several trees preset themselves as playgrounds, within seconds both kids were climbing, testing their bottle for height, their dexterity the only other limit!
The sun was now low in the sky and the light was streaming through the trees, ideal opportunity to take a few pictures. It was getting colder now so we headed out of the valley and onto Green Lane, walked back up the lane and trudged home.
It's great taking the kids to the places I spent so much of my childhood. They just get on with it and do all the things I used to do. All good.
It felt like December today! It's the first time this year we've seen snow. We needed to do something with the kids, so off we set to Saltaire, thought we'd have a look at the David Hockney gallery. The kids did well and walked around the exhibits, talking and engaging with what they were looking at.
I like the paintings from around 1997 and 1998 they include - Saltaire Painting (1997) - The Road To York through Sledmere (1997) - Yorkshire landscape (1997) and - Garrowby Hill (1998). It's the bright colours, consistency of line widths and balance that draws my eye! It's also kind of weird looking at the Garrowby and Sledmere paintings, I've blasted up these roads on my motorbike many times, so there is a connection to these paintings with a strong emotional context. (Riding a bike is not like driving a car!)
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| Look - Don't Touch. |
The kids liked some of the photo collages, this sort of thing can be done much easier now a days, but when they were originally done it was quite a new idea. Photosynth on the iPhone is a great tool for doing this kind of thing.
When standing well back from the images everything looks normal, up close the joins in the photographs become more visible, it's a really clever effect and unless you look closely you'd miss the fragmentation altogether.
There isn't much balance between the seasons, Winter and Autumn scenes both have bare trees with no or very few leafs, snow makes the winter scene different. Summer also appears on what looks like a late summer day. On two of the three pictures there is quite basic mask over the bottom of the photos, probably hiding something or maybe the photos don't extend to the bottom! So I'm not sure what I should think about it....
I did enjoy the iPhone pictures, you can see the development from naive through to accomplished pictures, it just shows what can be done when you've a top notch artist.
My All time favourite is A Walk around the Hotel Coutyard, Acatlan - 1985.
I remember coming to Saltaire back in the early 1990's and seeing several different workings of this. There was what I remember a big version at one end of the gallery. It felt like you were sat in the shade looking out into the sunlit courtyard. Sadly there isn't any of this on display at Saltaire at the moment.
After we'd been around everything we headed to the Victoria Hall ,for a look around the crafts fair, lots of interesting bits and pieces.
Titus Salt was quite a guy when you look around, we live in Queensbury and Fosters spent a fortune in our village, but Salts legacy is even more impressive.
