…and a failed painting
Yesterday I went for another walk along the lower Downs, this time following the path between St Michael’s in Berwick and Alciston church (it isn’t dedicated to any particular saint, strangely). It’s only a couple of miles, and the forecast was clear-ish for a couple of hours so I decided to risk it. It had rained a lot the day before, so there were lots of large puddles for Ned to become wet and zoomified, so her had a marvellous time.
I did remember my binoculars AND my Forest & Farmland Birds birdwatching logbook this time, so set out hoping to have a successful bird count in spite of the breeze and spots of rain.
The Binocular Effect was definitely in evidence, but I appreciated having them for the pair of Red Kites which cruised effortlessly above me, twisting and turning their long, forked tails; they are so well-named. Lots of Redwings flying about too, and I also saw about 100 Starlings roosting in a large ash tree which I also wouldn’t have spotted without the binoculars, as they look just like the clumps of seeds from a distance. I heard a few Fieldfares, and saw Blue and Great Tits hunting for invertebrates in among the hedges, which, incidentally were still laden with fruits for all the efforts of the visiting thrushes.
I walked around the churchyard, and would have spent a little more time exploring Alciston and its 14th Century buildings but the clouds were closing in and I didn’t want to get drenched, so headed back towards Berwick.
The yew tree is ancient, and parts of the church date back to Norman times, although it’s been heavily – and not particularly sympathetically – restored over the years. It’s a typical flint construction, similar to many other Sussex buildings.
Birds spotted
Here is my ticklist:
- Skylark
- Red Kite
- Buzzard
- Fieldfare
- Redwing
- House Sparrow
- Wren
- Blackbird
- Robin
- Great Tit
- Blue Tit
- Carrion Crow
- Jackdaw
- Goldfinch
- Starlings
- Meadow Pipit
- Pheasant
- Magpie
- Wood Pigeon
I wanted to try doing a more detailed drawing of Berwick church, and had started that before I left for my walk. Having seen the kites, I wanted to incorporate them and maybe add in Alciston church to the finished piece too. My desire to draw detailed buildings is diametrically opposed to my ability and patience when drawing anything with perspective or indeed lots of detail, but I have a masochistic urge whenever I take a reasonable photo of a building of wanting to recreate it in fine line.
I added in the pair of Red Kites, and then couldn’t work out how to represent the birds as I wanted to paint them, given how colourful they are. I had also applied lots of hand cream to my chapped hands, which then of course transferred to the sketchbook, making the gouache go weirdly oil-pastelly in texture. By this point I had essentially given up trying to make the composition make sense, and thankfully, my sketchbook is a place to just get stuff out of my system, and the end result is of little consequence. I still appreciate the sketch as a reminder of a wonderful few minutes watching the Red Kites flying above my head.
So, there we go: in my view it’s important to finish artwork, to a point where you personally feel it’s completed anyway, as the process is still valuable.
What do you think? Do you scrap artworks that go a bit wrong, or see them through to the bitter end?
