ardtornish cyanotypes

This image is from a series of cyanotypes I made from plant life in Morven recently. 

dog rose petals and pollen grains, July 2014

Wittgenstein and Eccles

Ludwig Wittgenstein and William Eccles at the kite-flying station in Glossop, England, 1910.

stilled life with moving trees - a bothy project residency at Inshriach

Inshriach Bothy

view from the porch

I arrived during a week of gales. The Cairngorms are windy at the best of times, yet I’m accustomed to being on the brittle granite plateau where the combination of altitude and the persistence of the wind creates a sub arctic landscape, a place where plants hug the land tightly. However because of the wind’s excessive force and unpredictable cloud level, the snow covered plateau became essentially out of bounds.

arrival at the bothy

I found myself walking in the lower areas of the Cairngorms, along the passes, up into the more modest hills adjacent to the plateau, to hidden lochans, and into the forests – Inshriach and Rothiemurchus, generally less familiar territory for me since I usually seek out high places.

The trees became the most dominant part of my experience. Sat in an elevated hollow, surrounded by a wood of silver birch interspersed with dwarf juniper, the bothy is quite protected and sheltered. Unless you know it’s there, or happen to walk close along the trail, you’d probably be oblivious to its very existence. I spent a good deal of time watching the trees and their movement, and listening to their sound, mixed in with the white noise of the River Spey which flowed in spate and flood nearby.

birch, pine, heather, juniper

 stilled life with moving trees (video documentation of my residency)

I came with a loose idea of some work I could make, thinking that a plan would be wise, but soon abandoned it, and learned to leave preconceived notions well alone, and simply be with the place. Nan Shepherd’s text, the living mountain guided me well in this sense, (and, struck by it’s notable absence on the bothy’s bookshelves, I popped out to Aviemore to buy a copy to leave as a gift).

The work didn’t come, but the time to think, and reassess aspects of my life and practice did, and I felt the repercussions of the trip perhaps more clearly once I returned home. I needed the time away, the space to be undisturbed by modern distractions such as the compulsion to check email. Technology has become particularly invasive and guilty of creating a syncopated rhythm to lifes that can be led more simply. 

As someone who has always loved solitude, I don’t think I’d appreciated how difficult complete solitude is however (thank goodness for a battery powered radio playing Radio 4!). Inshriach can be a quiet place, but on reading the bothy book, it’s clear that for most people, residencies here are anything but solitary, and spur on collaboration.

An Lochan Uaine through Caledonian Pine

from the summit shelter cairn of Meall a' Bhuachaille

But the motion of walking is an antidote to too much solitary sitting and thinking, and a journey to the Lochan Uaine, an unexpectedly bright green lochan nestled amongst the Caledonian pine trees of the Ryvoan Pass, became like a visit to an old, dear friend. Onwards to Ryvoan, and some shelter from the wind for lunch, I made a spur of the moment decision to climb Meall a' Bhuachaille, and despite ferocious winds which made standing near the summit difficult, the addictive lure of a vista, of expansiveness, and of physical exertion made it worth while.

the Cairngorms and Rothiemurchus

Back in the environs of the bothy, life settles into a regular rhythm. Wake up, go to the loo (a composting loo a hundred yards from the bothy), light wood stove, place large urn of water on stove to heat, go back to bed and read or listen to radio until bothy warms up, put the kettle on the trangia (I cheated and cooked on a combination of the wood stove and my trusty Trangia 27), have breakfast, shower (deliciously) outside with the water previously heated on the stove, dress, collect wood from the bottom of the hill in rucksack, re-fill the tea urn with water from the Spey, rest of day is for leisure – reading, writing, drawing, walking, eating,.. At nightfall, light candles, last wood on the stove at 6pm(ish) so that the bed platform isn’t too warm later, retire to bed around 9 or 10, ...etc.

On my last morning, I wake up to snow, the landscape again transformed. After a hot outdoor shower, with the snow still falling, I pack my things, then make the couple of trips back to the car parked almost a mile down the trail, food supplies diminished, and my load lighter than when I arrived. The weight of the city had also been lifted, and I'm reminded (if I ever really need such a thing) that part of me needs to be in the wild. I anticipate being reunited with my 3 year old son, so the departure isn't unwelcome in the way it would have been years ago, but the bothy, a perfectly formed small space packed with the essentials for good living, sends me on my way, nourished, and replete.

the bothy at dusk

nautical twilight

book found in the bothy library

a sun dog through the birch trees

the view North

With thanks to Walter Micklethwait and everyone at Inshriach, and to Bobby Niven of The Bothy Project

all images L Punton, 2014

a week long residency at Inshriach Bothy

I'm just about to set off on a week long residency at The Bothy Project's first bothy at Inshriach. A week to think, walk, and make in isolation, solitude and peace.

exterior in moonlight (photo Johnny Barrington)

interior (photo Luke Allan)

see http://www.thebothyproject.org/ for more info.

last light, first light

Last light, Dec 31, 2013, Ardtoe, Ardnamurchan.

First Light, Jan 1, 2014, from the causeway to Eilean Tioram.

mountains without end

My new book, "Lesley Punton - mountains without end" has come back from the printers. Here's a preview of a few spreads from the book. Sandie Macrae, Director of ROOM, and ROOMBOOKS - the gallery's publishing arm, has written the foreword. Thomas A Clark has written an essay on my practice entitled On Looking at Mountains, as has Dr David Watson in his piece Walking as Knowing, and Alec Finlay has contributed a poem Pataphysical Cuillin. Some of my own writings, fragments of which appear within this blog, are included in texts at the end that collectively come under the heading notebook.

ISBN 978-0-9549915-6-2

edition of 1000

64pp, full colour, soft-back, burst bound, lithographically printed, 246x189mm

Contributors (text) Thomas A Clark (UK), Dr David Watson (Australia), Alec Finlay (UK), Sandie Macrae (UK) & Lesley Punton (UK)

Published by ROOMBOOKS

Date : September 2013

£10 + p&p available directly from my website and at Aye Aye Books, Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow.

learning to draw - drawing to learn

I have work in this exhibition at the Fleming collection in London.

http://gsapress.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/learning-to-drawdrawing-to-learn.html

mountain ash

L Punton mountain ash, painted text, 2013

cold mountain

 extracts from Han-Shan's, cold mountain.

my heart's in the highlands

with thanks to R.F.

the attraction of mountains - Schiehallion

plaque photographed at the foot of Schiehallion, L Punton, July 2013

Carn Liath to Braigh Coire Chruinn-bhalgain

The ridge from Carn Liath to Braigh Coire Chruinn-bhalgain, L Punton, June 2013
 

The ridge from Carn Liath to Braigh Coire Chruinn-bhalgain, the first two Munro's of the Beinn a' Ghlo range, is possibly the finest, most beautiful, sinuous, curving, high-level ridge in all of Scotland. Photographs never quite do it justice.

landscape and I get on together well

bench plaque overlooking Garlyne Moss, towards Cairngorm and Bynack Mor.

On Climbing the Sierra Matterhorn Again After Thirty-One Years

Range after range of mountains
Year after year
I am still in love

Gary Snyder

Mountains and Rivers Without End

Perhaps by Lu Yuan (active late-17th century), 
China, Qing dynasty, late 17th century, 
Handscroll; ink on paper, Freer Gallery of Art

This isn't the version that inspired Gary Snyder's same titled book, but an amazing piece of drawing nonetheless. To view a full version of the scroll, click here.