Jaunt

A rather too long podcast going from pissing around the campsite doing Necessary Shit™ and getting frustrated how I am A Bad Lazy Walker to being out on Golden Cap being blasted with wind and rain and how I'd like to be bored at the campsite noe please. And ending on a call to arms to artists - where ARE you? I am working alone out here, getting wet and cold. And no, working from photos does NOT count...

With a cap in my hand (not left in my tent)

What happened on Friday (the jelly leg episode) really made me worry if I has to abort the trip if my legs could not cope with the much smaller hills vs Golden Cap. So I felt I had to go back when it was cooler and after 3 days recovery conquer this and regain my confidence...looking like an Old Testament Shephard with a t-shirt wrapped around my head... And did 3 artworks along the way (it is Bat HEAD not Hole, please do not write in!).

... Or why does Cerne Abbas remind me of a mix of the village from Children of the Stones, Summerisle, Corfe Castle and Chiddingfold! (I said Godalming on the podcast but on second thoughts that is a bit too urbane with it's fancy big Waitrose). I finally visit the Cerne Giant after planning it for two trips... I did have to take a sneaky taxi ride cos I just missed the bus in Dorchester, if you have ever seen Dorchester you'll know why I didn't want to spend nearly 3 hours there wating for the X11. Gilling around Weymouth is bad enough! Shame cos the last bus from Cerne is 6pm I could not try those lovely pubs out (only 3 survive from the original 12 so no The World's End here, definite vibes of Hot Fuzz though).

A short rant/heated discussion (really this should be called RantCast not TentCast) about walking, people in their insulated car bubbles and disconnected world and how lack of knowledge of your location is hurting the planet.

I got bored hanging around the campsite and head off to Preston and draw a thatched cottage then jump onto the bus to Durdle Door where I stayed last year... This time heading the other way facing the hills that defeated me from the other direction. Still too hot (indeed ambulance and coastguard are there waiting for the inevitable chaos) and feet are still too unhappy to tackle it so I painted two watercolours. One of that view which you can see in the episode arr, and a 30 minute timed piece of Durdle Door itself.

I don't just draw and paint seascapes on these trips, I explore the llldrier local sights too. Here I am discussing this piece of the 14th Century St Andrews, a rant about Holiday Parks and art education and how that adversely affected my drawing.

Walking from Eweleaze towards Lulworth we find shipwrecks, bunkers, white nothes, a good cliff way we watercolour and that my legs turn to jelly now on the extreme Uppy Downy bit after White Nothe especially on one of the warmest days of the year! So we abort, miss the bus cos of said legs, meet some kind strangers and come back to find an ant Invasion in progress at the tent! Can we have less eventful days please?

Seems strange for an artist podcaster to muse about not recording things but I talk about experiencing the moment and how technology or the desire to share/photograph can spoil the moment (and my history with that). And how it relates to my artwork while drinking my morning coffee (the first DIY one of the trip, unlike last time this one tastes great). Blue bee attracting towel shown in photo (bee not included)

Chaos with a collapsed tent at 3am and high winds, a tent move and the first drawing but feeling wiped out with heat and lack of sleep when the wind dropped.