Out & About …

… on the North York Moors, or wherever I happen to be.

Tag: art

  • Framing the Landscape — A Nine-Year Retrospective

    Framing the Landscape — A Nine-Year Retrospective

    Nine years. Nine long years in which the world has undergone remarkable transformations: Brexit, Covid, Ukraine, the rise and—let us hope—fall of Trump, and the conclusion of Tory turmoil. Yet, some constants endure. For nine years, “Framing the Landscape,” that quintessential piece of modern art, that obtrusive metallic eyesore placed in a nature reserve, has…

  • Red House

    Red House

    According Tom Scott Burns, Red House formerly served as a tavern for wayfarers traversing the moors, likely vying with The Lettered Board Inn, or Hamer House, where those in the business of panniers, colliers, and smugglers sought reprieve during their journey. Red House, like Hamer House, fell into ruins over the ages. While the stones…

  • It’s amazing what you come across in a Scottish forest

    It’s amazing what you come across in a Scottish forest

    In 2012, a full-size football pitch was created in a plantation of spruce near the Scottish border town of Selkirk. Trees were felled and the timber used to make the goal posts, crowd barriers, benches, and changing rooms. The pitch had been carefully tendered. For just one day, four teams of amateur players — two…

  • Not another one!

    Not another one!

    I remembered today a painting my aunty had above her fireplace. It was of a blue lady and it was years later that I discovered that it was just a reproduction sold in its thousands in 1960s furniture shops. The painting was called the Chinese Girl, and apparently the original was sold for nearly £1…

  • Speed Breakers

    Speed Breakers

    Yorkshire Sculpture Park. A visit to the 80 odd sculptures set in 500 acres of lovely rolling parkland surrounding Bretton Hall near Barnsley. I was particularly inspired by this artist’s juxtaposition between mundane objects found in our everyday environment and the natural landscape of the beech woodland. The expected surface has been subtly altered, contradicting…

  • Brimham Rocks

    Brimham Rocks

    Oh no, not more “artwork” spoiling our countryside.

  • Roseberry Art

    Roseberry Art

    A really good piece of work by Rachel Lonsdale, simple but effective. But I’m not convinced Roseberry needs it. I fear another step towards turning the National Park into a theme park. The idea is to discourage graffitists but with the artwork only on one side, there are three other blank canvasses. It is only a…

  • Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art

    Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art

    A trip into Middlesbrough and lunch at the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art or Mima as it is locally known. I did have a quick look at the gallery. Not my scene but the cafe’s good, well recommended. The architect designed building (Erick van Egeraat Associated Architects) cost £14.2 million funded by Middlesbrough Council and Arts Council.…

  • Graffiti of Roseberry

    Graffiti of Roseberry

    A damp miserable morning so I will have to resort to an old favourite. Is this graffiti? Is this vandalism? Questions I’ve touched on before. Behind Dove Cottage in the Lake District, one time home of the poet William Wordsworth there is a rock with WW inscribed on it. There is also DW and JW, his siblings,…

  • Rock Art or Graffiti?

    Rock Art or Graffiti?

    With rain forecast for the day I headed for Garfitt Gap below the Wainstones to try and photograph some Bronze Age cup and ring marked boulders. The boulders were easy to locate but the markings were not. The book I have has some drawings showing some intricate markings. Seems a bit of wishful thinking to me. A…