rafts

Earlier in the week, a group of us (mostly children) made some rafts to sail down Loch Aline. This is my effort made from twigs, grass and leaves. The first image is pre-launch, with the second in the water. Great fun.

a walk to Loch Ternait

Back again at Ardtornish in Morvern, we took a walk to Loch Ternait and Leacraithnaich Bothy. Jim and I last walked here 9 months ago, just 7 weeks before Angus was born, a time when we visited Staffa, and revisited the lead mines of Strontian a place where I'd made work many years ago.

Ternait too, is a place of memories from my childhood, though the bulldozed track that easily leads to the loch is a rather brutal scar on the land. But with the work that's happened in connection with the hydro scheme (damming past the outflow of the loch and diverting water through a pipeline) mud and silt has been dredged up on the track that has made the passage of wind on the surface water behave in an extraordinary way. Jim and I documented it on my digital camera, and this is the result.

In the middle of the loch lies a tiny crannog that used to house a shelter.

"Those accused of crimes from Lismore or Mull or neighbouring places, if they got permission from the Chief of Ardtornish to reside forty-eight hours on the island, were free from any liability to punishment. The island was thus a sanctuary – hence name Tearnait or Tearnaech Inaid, “place of safety”."

Loch Ternait from Leacraithnaich Bothy

The crannog can be seen towards the left of the image above (once zoomed in) as a greenish patch on the loch. Another place of safety, the  tranquility of the well maintained bothy seems to be constantly under threat from the forces of commerce, with the massive Glensanda Superquarry just visible from it's door. Still, it's a great spot, with summer water levels revealing sandy beaches around the fringes of the loch. It remains to be seen how the water levels will alter in future though once the hydro scheme is completed, and whether the beaches and indeed the crannog may be lost.

Map of Loch Ternait showing the crannog.
Leacraithnaich lies on the West side of the loch. 

Leacraithnaich bothy interior

falls

Whilst away for New Year, and unable to climb the mountains this year, we finally had a walk in the Hermitage, an NTS property I've driven past countless times on my way further north. This short clip is of the deeply frozen Falls of Braan on the River Braan seen from the viewing balcony at the end of Ossian's Hall, an 18th century folly created by the Duke of Atholl.


Falls of Braan from Lesley Punton on Vimeo.

wind, clouds and rain as ephemeral sculpture

Landscapes in the drawings and events of Roman Signer

 

Spazierstock (Walking Stick), 1997
Project for Skulptur Projekte Münster

"...His contribution in 1997 for the sculpture project in Münster illustrates Signer's artistic perception in all it's complexity. With the use of hydraulic pressure, he has a walking stick dance across the surface of a lake. The water, carried through a bent pipe to the walking stick, allowed the walking stick to move, drawing lines of water across the surface of the lake. The hiker's accessory breaks free to become the drawing tool. Signer thereby also alludes to the Romantic period, where the walking stick represented the landscape experience. In Signer's installation, Spazierstock (Walking Stick), hiking and drawing are identical, where, just as in the Romantic period, the concept of landscape was completely tied to the drawn or painted landscape image. However, while Romantic painters filled entire sketchbooks on their walks and by doing so collected a subject reservoir for their oftentimes lengthy work in their studios, Signer's drawing on the water's surface is fleeting, its documentation futile, if not almost impossible."

an excerpt from catalogue essay for Zeichnungen by Ortrud Westheider