The Taynish Art Trail Installations 2017
Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) & Artmap Argyll have collaborated on an art trail in the Taynish Nature Reserve near Tayvallich, for the past couple of years. I haven't wanted to/been able to/had the inspiration to, be part of it until this year. The deadline for submissions fell halfway through getting ready for the exhibition, in fact I left it for a week before getting in touch with the organisers asking if there was any chance that they would accept a late submission. They said yes, so at 5.30am on that final day, I emailed my proposal and photograph mock-ups. I had had two ideas and thought I would submit them both, hoping that they would accept one or the other..... they accepted both!! *Gulps* It was hard work getting them together in time but I'm really pleased that I made that extra push and got the submission in.
What I thought it might look like
"Captured Past"
The ruined water mill is the most obvious evidence of historic human habitation in this area, at times you can pick up a fleeting feeling of the lives lived here. Of the human essence still caught up in the trees and set in the stones.
My proposal was to illustrate the catching and trapping of the memories, words, feelings and the domestic history of the area so that it is no longer lost to the wind. A collaborative piece with Artmap Associate member Alexander Hamilton (who is also my dad!), combining art and literature.
To link the land to the sea, the natural environment to the built environment, I wanted to create a large net with words, poems and imagined quotes & memories printed and stitched on to banners, entwining them through the ‘net’. The piece is situated in the trees at the far side of the picnic area between the mill and the sea, capturing those fleeting moments, preventing them from being swept out to sea.
I also wrote two poems to go with this piece. You can read them here
The ruined water mill is the most obvious evidence of historic human habitation in this area, at times you can pick up a fleeting feeling of the lives lived here. Of the human essence still caught up in the trees and set in the stones.
My proposal was to illustrate the catching and trapping of the memories, words, feelings and the domestic history of the area so that it is no longer lost to the wind. A collaborative piece with Artmap Associate member Alexander Hamilton (who is also my dad!), combining art and literature.
To link the land to the sea, the natural environment to the built environment, I wanted to create a large net with words, poems and imagined quotes & memories printed and stitched on to banners, entwining them through the ‘net’. The piece is situated in the trees at the far side of the picnic area between the mill and the sea, capturing those fleeting moments, preventing them from being swept out to sea.
I also wrote two poems to go with this piece. You can read them here
My original vision
"DREAM SAIL"
I wanted to create a collaborative piece working with my father, Alexander Hamilton, combining art and literature, the stitched and the printed, the written and the spoken. Already identified as a wonderful spot for sitting & looking, standing and staring, the seat at the lochside inspires the writing and sharing of poetry and stories, with someone’s ingenious idea of the poetry book box and notepad, I was drawn to tie all this together. Although there isn’t a lot of boat traffic on the loch I planned to reference ‘man’ in ‘nature’ and to create a sail shaped windbreak with an original poem, or perhaps the legend of the Loch Sween monster, stitched and printed on to it, so that adults and children can sit, sheltered from the wind and read the words aloud.
I wanted to create a collaborative piece working with my father, Alexander Hamilton, combining art and literature, the stitched and the printed, the written and the spoken. Already identified as a wonderful spot for sitting & looking, standing and staring, the seat at the lochside inspires the writing and sharing of poetry and stories, with someone’s ingenious idea of the poetry book box and notepad, I was drawn to tie all this together. Although there isn’t a lot of boat traffic on the loch I planned to reference ‘man’ in ‘nature’ and to create a sail shaped windbreak with an original poem, or perhaps the legend of the Loch Sween monster, stitched and printed on to it, so that adults and children can sit, sheltered from the wind and read the words aloud.
"THE LEGEND OF THE MONSTROUS BEAST OF ARGYLL"
The account had been written by Alexander and the book was illustrated by me, and created by printing and painting on to fabric.
The lads at SNH had discovered a rotten old rowing boat at the edge of the freshwater lochan and they asked me I would like to use it in some way. So a bonus piece was conjured up. An illustrated copy of the Legend of the Loch Sweenn monster. The book now lives in a tin trunk placed inside the boat, with a new wee bench seat made as the benches in the boat are a little too elderly for sitting on!
The account had been written by Alexander and the book was illustrated by me, and created by printing and painting on to fabric.
The lads at SNH had discovered a rotten old rowing boat at the edge of the freshwater lochan and they asked me I would like to use it in some way. So a bonus piece was conjured up. An illustrated copy of the Legend of the Loch Sweenn monster. The book now lives in a tin trunk placed inside the boat, with a new wee bench seat made as the benches in the boat are a little too elderly for sitting on!
