Time and Tide Bell
A Continuing Arts Programme facing Lincolnshire's Coast
Our art exhibitions emerge from the conceptual basis of Marcus Vergette's Time and Tide Bells, stimulating conversations about human relationships with the sea, past, present and future, mindful of the global warming and the social stresses that climate change and sea level rise may bring.
This exhibition is inspired by the landscape and biodiversity of the Lincolnshire coast, its beaches, saltmarsh and dune systems, tracing its development through time, from the last Ice Age into the distant future when global warming and sea level rise will have affected the region.
Works have been commissioned that might raise awareness and stimulate conversations about the coastal landscape. The artists have been invited to produce writing that goes beyond the traditional artist's statement, engaging the audience with how their work relates to the themes of the exhibition. Their work, in image and word, is published in 'By the Sea', a 76-page full colour book. Also included is information about the Time and Tide Bell and an essay, 'Liminal' by Biff Vernon, introducung the development of Lincolnshire's coastal landscape and its future in a warming world with rising seas.
By the Sea is available for £5 postage free. To get your copy:
Participating artists:
The story of the starfish tells us that no matter how small our efforts may seem, they still have their place. It is up to each of us to make sure we are part of the solution, rather than part of the problem.
Large Landscape No. 28 ~ Anastasia Lewis
Marsh Snow 1 ~ Anastasia Lewis
Marsh Snow 3 ~ Anastasia Lewis
A transformation of the landscape. These paintings are made from photographs and the memories of the Lincolnshire Marshes in the winter of 2010, when an alien environment was created by the snow and ice in the freezing weather and the soft mud and sand became hard and crackled underfoot
Anastasia Lewis is an artist who lives and works in both London and Lincolnshire. As well as the UK she has exhibited in France and Australia and has had several solo exhibitions and been shown in numerous group shows. She works mainly in oils but also uses collage and watercolours. For the past 20 years her work has been informed by walking in the flat marshland of the Lincolnshire coast. In 2013 she made six minute film on the nature of friendship, 'Tea for Two', which can be seen on Vimeo.
Lincolnshire Coast
Watercolour and Prisma pencil 30 x 42 cm
Where's the Sea?
Watercolour and Prisma pencil 21 x 30 cm
After over 30 years of not painting, and three weeks of staring at an A3 size peice of watercolour paper and not knowing where to start... I now cannot stop. I am painting everything that doesn't move and taking photos of everything that does move, to paint later... trying lots of styles and mediums, and just well... having a ball, breaking all the rules, but then with art are there really any rules to break.
I adore the Lincolnshire coast with its muted colours and wide open sky and sometimes even a glimpse of the sea. The two paintings for the By the Sea exhibition, were so enjoyable to paint, I adore the ever changing Lincolnshire coast line with its huge skys... The first 'Lincolnshire Coast' was all about the rotting stumps and the lovely diffused light... The second 'Where's the Sea' was painted from a favorite photo taken at Theddlethorpe, the puddles large and small in the sand are often the only water as the sea is usually a long way out, but they have there own changing beauty... and sometimes the patterns on the sand as the water has retreated can be so other worldly. Almost a poem in the sand.
Moored Boat, Hull.
2018. Dry Point Etching. 29 x 21 cm 2018 NFS
October Surf, Sandilands.
Acrylics on board. 29 x 21 cm October 2018 NFS
Tide's Out, Saltfleet.
Oils on board. 29 x 21 cm October 2018 NFS
Beverley Nel - Biog
I studied my Fine Art Degree at Hornsey Art College, North London, 1979 - 82.
My main love and inspiration is drawing and painting directly from life, capturing something of that moment. I am currently enjoying the challenge of working directly from land and seascapes; immersing myself in situ, absorbing the changing light, colours, shapes and sounds.
Practicing my own art goes hand in hand with my teaching career. One inspires the other.
I have exhibited and participated in group exhibitions including the Cornwall Open Studios and other Open Studios events.
Coast
Oil 40 x 40 cm
Tideline
Gouache 15 x 20 cm
Breaking Wave
Oil 40 x 40 cm
Windy Day
Gouache 15 x 20 cm
Oil on canvas board 23 x 36 cm
Oil on canvas board 50 x 40 cm
I am a 75 year old granny who has started painting recently. I loved living in Lincolnshire for 6 years and especially enjoyed my hours on the North Sea in quite a number of spots. Having grown up on the east coast of the USA, I loved being on yet again another amazing body of water.
North Sea Bed between England and Holland
Photograph 16 x 26 cm
It's plain to see that we are joined by a hidden landscape, the North Sea bed. The image explores this secret territory where time and borders blur.
The Oceana Series
'Picking up pretty things on the beach is probably as old a past-time as anything. The first humans to walk our shores since Doggerland was flooded probably adorned themselves with shells and pebbles with holes. Perhaps it's our oldest tradition.'
Holey stones or Hag Stones, also known as Odin Stones are simply that, stones with a naturally occurring hole in them. Most often found in coastal areas and on beaches it is said to be lucky if you find one. They feature in Pagan legend, where the Hag Stone is linked to the element of water and the moon. They are said to be used to invoke new beginnings (the hole representing a portal of new life) and connection to the Mother Goddess. They represent the wheel of life and are associated with Cleansing, Fertility, Protection and Opening your third eye. Legend says you can see Divine entities through the holes in the stone. These stones, imbued with all their mystical legend, were highly prized by our ancestors and used as personal adornments or as protective charms within the home.
As an artist specializing in creating 'art jewellery', I fabricate my own 'beach-finds' and Hag-stones to incorporate within my jewellery pieces. The 'Oceana' series of work is my re-imagining of such personal adornment. Representing both ancient and modern each piece is talismanic, decorative and entirely wearable. No beaches were harmed in the creation of these pieces.
Dayl Jones
Coastal Erosion
Ice Melt
I developed these images from the surface of old fishing boats left to decay. I considered how these found objects, that reflected the changing community of the coastal plain and the powerful forces of nature, could also represent erosion, decay and change in the wider environment. Debbie Geddes
Debbie is a graduate of fine arts from Nottingham University now living in Louth. Her work is exhibited in France, Spain and the United Kingdom. An abstract expressionist, she transforms familiar images through a variety of multimedia processes, the familiar becoming unfamiliar, taking on new forms, expressing new meanings.
Deckchair - Acrylic on canvas 40 x 51 cm
Deckchair on Sand - Acrylic on canvas 20 x 20 cm
Having lived in the Far East for many years, I have retired to Lincolnshire. As an artist I have found it to be one of the most beautiful places I have ever lived in. It seems to have so many hidden gems amongst the rolling hills of The Wolds and such a stunningly lovely coast line. The North Sea is a valuable asset to be treasured. There is nothing I like more than to sit on a sandy beach in a deckchair by the ever changing water. I just watch the waves endlessly sliding in and out and see the clouds roll by. Truly peaceful. A walk along the shore line collecting sea shells and driftwood is a wonderfully relaxing way to pass an afternoon and let the cares of the world fade away. We are so lucky to have nature on our doorstep in all its glory and be able to enjoy being by the sea.
Diana Copeland, being by the sea.
Poppy Meadow Elaine O'Donnell
Echoes of my Lincolnshire Marsh.
I'm seeing circles in the air - staring out there
At flocks of starlings, dancing, whirling in the sky
Raucous but melancholy is their cry.
I'm watching wild geese wandering - calling
over this landscape misted and grey
Past water, cold on its swell and sway.
A great wind whistles and blows across
The back of sandpiper, oystercatcher, and sanderling.
White majesty of swans, all feathered backs -
their wings aglow,
Float silently past the masted yachts
Whose distant bells ring out, in echoes of the marsh
For all it's solitude, this land is what I know...
Elaine O'Donnell
Shifting sands of time.
It stuck in my mind recently, a sentence my husband said to me, when out walking the dog along the coast, further down from Clee. How he used to play in sand dunes, with tall reeds and grasses and rickety old fences that pierced the blue sky beyond. He would stay there all day long, making sandcastles and playing with his family amongst the dunes.
"You can't do that now, along here", he said to me, "look at it now, all flat - the dunes are gone, what is it now?" I said, "it looks like saltmarsh to me, such a different kind of landscape", spreading out before us, stretching out to the sea. So I painted in colour his memory of what it used to be, from a faded black and white photo I took long ago, and his remembering of the sand dunes beside the sea, back in Nineteen sixty three...
Seacloth Sunrise ~ Erling Burgess 2009
Saltfleet Shipwreck - photograph 2011
Taken a few years ago, this photo shows the wreck of a ship near the mouth of the Saltfleet Haven.
Historic England Monument Report
Built: 1866
Master: J Adams
Crew: 2
Official number: 54512
Vessel stranded and lost in wind conditions N force 6.
The Try was wrecked without any hope of repair at the mouth of the Haven with several tons of coal aboard off Rimac.
Wreck of English sloop. The Try was built in 1866, and carrying a cargo of coal was lost at the entrance to Saltfleet Haven in a force 6 wind on 26th June 1900.
The same vessel had run aground in almost the same position in 1882 with the loss of five lives, but had been recommissioned.
The current whereabouts of the Try is something of a mystery. A local resident with good knowledge of the area said that about 12 years ago he had seen the wreck when much of the sand had been scoured out leaving the deck loaded with chalk rubble ballast exposed but that subsequently the course of the Saltfleet Haven outlet shifted south as far as the wreck, undermining it until it collapsed and was lost. This account, however, requires that the wreck must have been some one kilometer north of the coordinates given by the Historic England Monument Record as 548470 391590. If these coordinates are correct then the wreck is now burried. This section of the coastline is accretionary, the sand building up so the wreck is no longer visible. Sea level may be rising but, just here, the land level is rising faster, producing an apparent drop in the local sea level. Or perhaps the local knowledge is more accurate than the offical location data?
Adorned - photograph 2011
A million migrant birds make their passage along Lincolnshire's coast.
One damp feather is left on the sand.
Mog's Eye - photograph 1987
The clay bed, upon which grew the now submerged forest, could once be seen at low tide along much of the Lincolnshire coast. A combination of erosion and subsequent burial by sand has left little of it visible.
Preparing to Retreat Silkscreen print 40 x 30 cm
The vessel in this image is not seaworthy: its skeletal framework only partially held together. Is this a shipwreck brought ashore to be dismantled or is this a new boat being constructed in readiness for the sea-level rises to come? The water appears quiet and the weather calm but we are disorientated. Where is the horizon? Distances, depths and viewpoints are ambiguous and our own position is not clear. I would like this image to communicate something of the beauty of our coast but also remind us of our vulnerability as well as the uncertainty of our times.
Fiona is best known for her emotive images of the land, coastline and weather. "My work is rooted in my experience of living and working in rural Lincolnshire. I have grown up surrounded by the beauty and demands of the landscape where life is inextricably tied not only to the geography and history of the land but also to the politics and culture of our times." As well as traditional methods Fiona also uses fragile or impermanent materials to explore and depict the connections between our day-to-day lives and the extended and durational, often invisible, environmental changes that are takin place around us.
Samphire ~ Gary Woods
The British Salicornia genus is represented by half a dozen closely related species, the commonest being Salicornia eurpaea. This is a variable species best described as an aggregate. Samphire's flowers are wind pollinated but the plant is eaten by some Coleophora moth larvae, with one species, C. salicorniae, feeding entirely on Samphire as a stem borer.
My first exhibitions were mostly of pictures of small figures set in large landscapes or trompe loeil figures of shadows taken from a great height. I remember the French critics asking why I had reduced the human race to the size of insects. To me they were vistas that gave the greatest pleasure. My father pointed out to me years later that, as a child, we had lived near a beach with an extensive sandbar. I had been allowed hundreds of yards into the water and still it only reached the waist. Looking back to see my minders from such a distance was a great liberation. The eye is the first circle, the horizon which it forms the second. Gary Woods has work held in important collections including The Getty Museum, Los Angeles and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
Gannet - Hazel Burnham
Mixed Media including glass, plastic, fabric
Sharing our planet with nature is not an easy fete for mankind. So many conflicts of interest. My work is focussing on how we are cluttering up our beautiful oceans. These amazing ecosystems are in danger and those creatures, including ourselves are all victims. Our ecology, wildlife, climate and our own survival is reliant on us to make changes to the way we live. My piece uses materials that can be found washing up on our shores.
Time and Tide Bell at Cemaes Bay ~ Janis Bowley
'Littoral & Literal Zones' J.Bowley - mixed media, 2018
'Littoral & Literal Zones' detail
Littoral Zones
A littoral zone is the seashore extending from the high tide mark to the permanently submerged shoreline. Organisms in this zone must adapt for wet, dry, and dynamic conditions, so they produce particularly high diversity.
This zone demonstrates edge effect: where ecosystems converge (i.e. water and land) plants and animals tap into both environments, often uniquely adapting to conditions between the two edges. Ecosystems function as highly interconnected networks, and edges produce particularly rich and unparalleled situations, and we are part of these networks.
The littoral zone responds to human and natural influences and will be severely affected by human activities that increase nutrient loading, spread invasive species, cause acidification, all forms of pollution, and climate change.
Create fertile edges in your conversations, interactions, learning, and in spaces between each other ... like your life depended on it.
St. Patrick's Bell, Cemaes Bay ~ Jean Morgan-Roberts
By the Sea - Strand Line
Chapel Point, Lincolnshire
Felt and found beach materials
The inspiration for this piece came from my love of being by the sea. A walk along the strand line (tide line) to the left of the North Sea Observatory, produced a collection of shells, feathers, driftwood, coal, a mermaid's purse, seaweed and unfortunately a plastic straw. The technique of felting gave the long strip of sea and sand. On the day of my visit the wind was blowing and the sea water churned to a murky blue/brown, with the tips of the waves frothy white. Lots of flotsam and jetsam had been gathered together by the twice daily high water tides. A treasure trove for the inner child!
Biog.
Secondary School - inspirational art teachers, especially Mrs Saunders.
Followed by - Foundation Art Course, Harlow.
Trained - Keswick Hall Teacher Training College, Norwich.
Retired - April 2017 - opportunity to pursue my love of art and craft.
Favourite Artists - Kurt Jackson, John Piper and David Nash.
Favourite Music - Fingal's Cave by Felix Mendelssohn.
Favourite Holiday -Walking by the Sea.
Favourite Food - Chocolate but must be gluten-free
Favourite Childhood Memory - Holidays at Queen Bee Caravan and camping Site, Warren Bay, Doniford near Watchet, Somerset.
Favourite New Building - North Sea Observatory, Chapel Point.
Favourite Old Building - Lindesfarne Castle, Holy Island.
Favourite Place for Fish and Chips - Heneage Arms, Hainton, Lincolnshire.
Favourite Poem - Everybody Got a Gift by Grace Nichols.
Favourite Quote - Everybody is a Genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid. Albert Einstein.
Favourite Mantra - When one door closes look for the open window!
Sutton-under-Sea
Shorelines ~ Keith Norman
Time and Tide Bell, Cemaes Bay, Anglesey
Canon 700D 10-18mm zoom lens f5.6 1/200 sec Ball lens
Flooding at Sandilands - Etched lino print - Marcelle Seabourne
This series of relief prints was inspired by a remarkable black and white aerial view of the aftermath of the devastating, but awe-inspiring 'Great Storm' of 1953. The resulting pictures are not intended as an exact representation of the topography of the landscape. Looking at the flooded land from the air, I was struck by how the familiar shape of the man-made environment had become reconfigured and unfamiliar as it was half submerged by the sea.
Sandilands, February 1953
To make the prints, I selected some key shapes and lines from the photograph and carved these in reverse into a lino printing block, to create an outline framework. I then used a caustic etching process to remove more areas of the block surface, simulating the abstract shapes made by the flood waters. From this I made a set of unique prints, varying the colour and intensity of ink on each. On some I added an additional colour, using the same lino block, and on others a further abstract layer from a second etched lino block.
Freiston Shore: The Changing Face of the Lincolnshire Coastline
Etched lino print - Marcelle Seabourne
The Artwork
In this series of relief prints, each a 'one-off', I set out to capture the striking beauty of the Lincolnshire coastline from a unique perspective. I began by exploring aerial photography of the Lincolnshire coastline from Gibraltar Point to The Wash. There is a marked contrast between the marshland outside the sea defences and the patchwork of arable farmland these defences protect. I was intrigued by the intricate patterns of creeks and wetland seen from the air and struck by how, just at this one point on Freiston Shore, the marsh had been allowed back into the farmland. I chose to show this divide between cultivated and wild by placing the boundary between farmland and marsh diagonally across the image. I also wanted to emphasise how the seawater is reaching back into the land through the three man-made breaches in the outer sea wall. To me, these snaking channels suggest how the sea is poised to reclaim large areas of low-lying land as levels continue to rise due to global warming.
History
The story of Freiston, east of Boston, epitomises the changeable nature of coastal lands, highlighting the sometimes uneasy relationship between ourselves and the sea.
Freiston Shore boasted an extensive sandy beach in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This became a fashionable destination for visitors and two sizeable hotels were established just behind the sea bank, providing heated sea baths and direct access to a promenade along the shoreline. People would come from far and wide to take advantage of the claimed health benefits of bathing in sea water, to be seen in fashionable society or to attend horse races and other attractions on the beach.
Later in the 19th century, however, the salt marsh gradually began to encroach on the sandy beach and visitor numbers dwindled. The decline increased as new rail links to Skegness and Mablethorpe made these resorts much more accessible than Freiston.
In the 1980's Freiston Shore was one of the last areas of The Wash to be reclaimed from the sea for farmland. It was decided to build a new outer sea bank in addition to the inner bank, which had been built in the middle of the century by young male offenders known as the Borstal Boys. However, this outer bank was regularly battered by storm tides, and the northern part of the reclaimed land was at serious risk from flooding. A further realignment of the sea defences was chosen as the best way forward and so, only about twenty years after it had been built, the outer sea bank was breached in three places, allowing seawater to flow back into the reclaimed land and the salt marsh to re-establish. A large lagoon was created where material had been extracted to strengthen the inner sea bank, providing a home for a wealth of sea birds and an important stop-off for migratory birds too. The brackish pools are also proving a valuable nursery habitat for young fish, including commercially important species such as bass, sprat and herring.
Freiston Shore now forms a nationally significant RSPB reserve, once more attracting visitors from far and wide.
References: parishes.lincolnshire.gov.uk; wikipedia.org/wiki/Freiston_Shore; channelcoast.org/anglia/analysis_programme/Freiston Shore; google.com/maps
Prospective sketches prior to installation of a Time and Tide Bell at Cemaes Bay.
Paul Morel and Clara go bathing
Acrylic on canvas 40 x 120 cm
'At last they got an answer from Mablethorpe, a cottage such as they wished for thirty shillings a week.'
D.H.Lawrence and his sister, Ada Clarke (née Ada Lawrence) standing on the beach at Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire, August 1926.
The Lawrences had a two week family holiday at Brook Cottage, Theddlethorpe Road, in August 1906 as the writer approached his 21st birthday. His friend and confident Jesse Chambers accompanied them for the first week and wrote up the experience in 'D H Lawrence - A Personal Record' giving a clear sense of his wonderment of the beach at Theddlethorpe. There are two autobiographical passages in Sons and Lovers concerning his memories of the Lincolnshire Coast, the first a recollection of the family holiday of 1906 where Paul (DHL) and Leonard go bathing in the mornings; and a longer passage where Paul and Clara take rooms in a cottage and 'live together as man and wife...'
He loved the Lincolnshire coast, and she loved the sea. In the early morning they often went out together to bathe. The grey of the dawn, the far, desolate reaches of the fenland smitten with winter, the sea-meadows rank with herbage, were stark enough to rejoice his soul. As they stepped on to the highroad from their plank bridge, and looked round at the endless monotony of levels, the land a little darker than the sky, the sea sounding small beyond the sandhills, his heart filled strong with the sweeping relentlessness of life. She loved him then. He was solitary and strong, and his eyes had a beautiful light.
They shuddered with cold; then he raced her down the road to the green turf bridge. She could run well. Her colour soon came, her throat was bare, her eyes shone. He loved her for being so luxuriously heavy, and yet so quick. Himself was light; she went with a beautiful rush. They grew warm, and walked hand in hand.
A flush came into the sky, the wan moon, half-way down the west, sank into insignificance. On the shadowy land things began to take life, plants with great leaves became distinct. They came through a pass in the big, cold sandhills on to the beach. The long waste of foreshore lay moaning under the dawn and the sea; the ocean was a flat dark strip with a white edge. Over the gloomy sea the sky grew red. Quickly the fire spread among the clouds and scattered them. Crimson burned to orange, orange to dull gold, and in a golden glitter the sun came up, dribbling fierily over the waves in little splashes, as if someone had gone along and the light had spilled from her pail as she walked.
The breakers ran down the shore in long, hoarse strokes. Tiny seagulls, like specks of spray, wheeled above the line of surf. Their crying seemed larger than they. Far away the coast reached out, and melted into the morning, the tussocky sandhills seemed to sink to a level with the beach. Mablethorpe was tiny on their right. They had alone the space of all this level shore, the sea, and the upcoming sun, the faint noise of the waters, the sharp crying of the gulls.
The stretch of dunes-beach north of Mablethorpe is still used by naturists today.
Doggerland IV, Tracks and Traces
Towards the end of the last Ice Age much of the North Sea was dry land, an area we call Doggerland. Across this not-sea the first post-glacial human settlers walked from what is now continental Europe. As the ice melted so sea level rose, creating the British Isles. From thence on all new immigrants had to come across the seas. Maxim Griffin's drawing is inspired by the lost landscape of Doggerland.
The ocean will have us all - West Doggerland, looking north
"West Doggerland - from Saltfleet to Donna Nook and beyond into the jaws of the Humber. There lies Ravenser Odd - a town last seen on the morning of 16th January 1362 - a day known as the Great Mandrake, or if you prefer our modern tongue, the Great Drowning of Men." ~ Maxim.
North Sea North Sea North Sea
Outer North Sea
Along the coasts of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk, folk have moved, pushed inland and allowed to move outwards again, as the sea and our sea-defences have, over the centuries, allowed. Relative sea level changes have been slight but on flat land the safe place can shift by miles. In the future, though the rate of change is still uncertain, the fact of sea level rise that will result from global warming is undeniable. Land will be lost, cities destroyed, populations will migrate.
Some online resources concerning Ravenser Odd:
The sea, the furious North has got the sea.
In search of the Try
Skein
Binoculors / Sea
Outmarsh
North Sea
Intertidal
Marshes
More of Maxim Griffin's work is on Twitter
Marsh Helleborine Epipactis palustris ~ Pat Hickson
Watercolour 55 x 44 cm
This orchid is one of Lincolnshire's least common plants. There are a handful of records from the 19th and 20th centuries but it seems to have become extinct in the county until its reintroduction at Rimac on the Saltfleetby-Theddlethorpe Dunes National Nature Reserve in the 1960s. That's been a success with a count of over 7500 recorded in the spring of 2012.
The Marsh Helleborine is found from Ireland, through Europe and Siberia. It is perennial with a shallow, creeping root system, well suited to vegetative reproduction in wet ground and maintaining a nutrient supply whilst staying above the poorly oxygenated water below. Curiously, some of the plants at Rimac have established themselves and are thriving on dry parts of the very well drained sand dunes, contrary to botanical expectations.
It is listed in CITES Appendix II, the second highest category of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. This lists species not necessarily threatened with extinction but that may become so unless trade is closely controlled.
Marsh Helleborines are a valuable nectar source and are pollinated particularly by small wasps, but also by honey, solitary and bumblebees, hoverflies, beetles and ants. Like many orchids, the pollen grains group together in masses known as pollinia that are transported by pollinating insects but they are too heavy for some of the smallest flies that visit the flowers. Butterflies and long tongued bees can reach the nectar without touching the stamens so they too do not help in pollination. The most efficient pollinators are the mason bees and mason or potter wasps but over one hundred species of insects have been found to visit the Marsh Helleborine.
Orchids visited and pollinated by insects create an environment for spiders and predatory froghoppers that feed on pollinators. The Marsh Helleborine is just one part of a complex ecosystem, its loss having unknown consequences for biodiversity.
Water rising
Acryllic 16 x 102 cm
Sea spray
Oil Pastel on black paper 30 x 43 cm
The Sea's force is total...
Some thoughts as I create my sea pictures:
Keep Britain Tidy ~ Pete Swift
The central image of the woman in the red bathing suit is taken from a World War 2 postcard illustration by Donald McGill. Famous for his saucy seaside postcards, he produced over 12,000 during his lifetime, it is less well known however that he created propaganda and moral boosting images during both World Wars. Using humour and an acute sense of social observation he made difficult political scenarios acceptable to the general population.
At a time when Great Britain is facing its greatest political upheaval since the Second World War and in an area which demonstrated one of the highest Eurosceptic votes, what better time to revisit his work and take a wry visual nod to the genius which became an hilarious part of all our seaside holidays.
J G Graves
The lifeboat J G Graves was stationed along the East Coast for much of its working life. It now resides in the Lifeboat museum in Chatham. The industrialist J G Graves gave much to the city of Sheffield including the Gallery and collection which I spent my childhood and youth visiting. He was however born in Horncastle Lincolnshire. The boy with the toy boat looks and is awed by the presence and romance of the beached lifeboat.
On Reflection: I made these pots fifteen years ago, the last firing before I gave up my studio and moved on. So often works made long ago can make you cringe but these resonate with me to the same degree now as they did then. They make me feel good, they are a depiction of the landscape I call home. They remind me of a connection with the elements, the seasons and landscape, once taken for granted, that I yearn for again, the Lincolnshire Fens. Wide open expanse of sky with uninterrupted horizons and miles upon miles of intensively farmed crops. Big energy consumptive pump houses work constantly to drain and maintain this man-made landscape. With flooding and sea levels rising how much more energy are we willing consume and at what cost to protect what we have made, an area many call home?
The Deadwood Series ~ Rogan Berkeley
I work with found materials making small vessels , nests and little books. All of my 'Strandline' work has been created with discarded material gathered from beaches along the East coast from Filey to Mundesley in Norfolk. I am passionate about highlighting this waste material but also by transforming it into something other. I have been making this work since 2012.
Small vessels, nests, gatherings, wild drawings and quiet books made from foraged natural and manufactured materials. A transformation of that which is often overlooked into something intriguing and unexpected. Finding a humble epiphany within the seemingly mundane.
"Nests from the North sea" has been created specially for this exhibition as a continuation of my "Strandline" work which began in 2012.The tiny nests are made by coiling found roots and tendrils which are then sewn together using fishing line and plastic detritus. All of which have been gathered along the strand line of East coast beaches.
The intention is to capture the attention of the viewer via a nest, seemingly a sanctuary. Along with the realisation that the nest is made from waste plastic comes an acknowledgement that this gathered waste, washed up onto East coast beaches from the North Sea, has become an integral part of our living ecosystem. This reflects our impact upon this Earth. Although the waste plastic is temporarily denuded of it's power to pollute via the creation of an artwork, in an ideal world this work couldn't exist at all.
After graduating in the late 1980s I have exhibited widely and have work in several private collections. I have recently held workshops in "nest making" and wild drawing and have been Artist in Residence at the Derby Arboretum.
The intention of this work is to capture the viewers' attention via objects which are quite beautiful and special. Along with the realisation of the materials used in its creation comes an acknowledgement that this seemingly inanimate waste, which has been temporarily denuded of its power to pollute, has become an integral part of our living ecosystem. A reflection of our impact upon this Earth. - Rosalind
A Great Wave 38 x 46 cm
Sea Reflection 52 x 52 cm
Dark Sea Sunset 55 x 47 cm
Arc of a Wave 46 x 38 cm
The sea is the register of time - waves flow from the past, exist in the present and hint the future before dissolving to repeat the process. The sea presents a powerful force, or a calm existence when the waters flow with a maturing evolution. It can be turbulent, determined and will persevere towards a placid or chaotic conclusion. This is a romantic nostalgic view. Today there is a more ominous connection with the sea where environmental issues linked to commercial activity and single used plastic is shifting the way we think and interact with the sea.
The works have been completed using techniques l'm exploring associated with gilding and marquetry. Wood veneers have been dyed then formed using jigs and coloured resins. Laminates are assembled, cut and re-cut, then re-assembled. These works represents the sea through design based visual language where material is laminated, assembled and recut. Individual cutting actions have little importance but when they are assembled and combined they gain a coherent visual language which promotes a larger story. This method is the aesthetics of uncertainty and places unpredictability at the centre of the process. Steve Cook
Bempton Cliffs
Mixed media on watercolour paper 23 x 34 cm
Bempton Cliffs is a nature reserve, run by the RPSB, at Bempton in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It is best known for its breeding seabirds, including northern gannet, Atlantic puffin, razorbill, common guillemot, black-legged kittiwake and fulmar. Bempton is not part of the Lincolnshire coast, but what is interesting is that material eroded from the Yorkshire Coast is driven southwards by long-shore drifts to become an accretionary shoreline stretching from the Humber to Mablethorpe in Lincolnshire. This ebb and flow, literal shifting of sands has a profound effect on the environment, the local population and the wildlife. It is a startling figure that some 28% of the coast in England and Wales experiences erosion at rates higher than 0.1m/year.
Earlier this year, I enjoyed a short but memorable holiday in and around Bridlington. On a scorching hot day, my two friends and I took a delightful boat trip on the pleasure cruiser, the Yorkshire Belle, from Bridlington to the Bempton Cliffs. A couple of days later, I attended a painting workshop at the Bridlington Spa under the guidance of Artist, Richard Stuttle with a workshop title of 'Realism V Abstraction'. Filled with images of birds from the boat trip, and my ears still ringing from the cacophony of bird shrieks, I used the morning session to create a realistic landscape painting that told a story of congestion, chaos and birds diving into turquoise waters against majestic white cliffs. In the afternoon, and completely out of my comfort zone, we were asked to take all the threads from the same story but reinvent the work in an abstract style thinking more about meaning, shape, colour, feeling, movement and symbolism rather than a realistic representation. This is the painting I achieved on that afternoon. Moving away from what is comfortable, what is known, requires faith and courage in equal measure; it can be scary but it can be immensely satisfying, especially if it turns out well. I think, as artists, we are constantly learning and we need to embrace risk rather than fear it.
A Sense of Place
Acrylic and Indian ink on watercolour paper 24 x 35 cm
I see the imminent destination through my childhood experiences and memories. A hot long train journey, the sound of inevitable squabbles between four siblings, and the taste of a flattened fish paste sandwich as the locomotive pulls into Skegness. Our excitement of the day heightened by the beaming smile of the Jolly Fisherman poster that waves us on our way from Burton-on-Trent and greets us as we pull into the East Coast. There was always the wind, cold and biting, penetrating my ruched swimming costume or flapping at the wind break, making waves on my small bucket of water as I carried it precariously to the castle made of sand. Smells of donkeys, candy floss, sea water and chips infuse my memories and I feel carefree, happy and content - a smile appears across my face. This place, the nearest coastline to home was such a fundamental part of my growing up and now, as an adult approaching the North Sea Observatory, I think of transition, of me, and of the landscape - how will the passage of time affect the person and the place?
The painting, 'A Sense of Place' was produced following my recent visit to the Lincolnshire Coast. Making a return trip and having abandoned my bucket and spade, I breathed in the clear air, paddled in the foam of the sea and feasted my eyes on the visual array of shapes and colour from beautiful architecture, shadows of cloud on water, to undulating sand dunes with lush green grasses. I sat on the beach sketching folk digging enormous holes in the sand anticipating the incoming tide ready to fill the empty space with cool grey water, all to the squeals of small children. I feel that same sense of joy, of being near the sea, sand squelching through my toes, the wind present but warm and comforting not cold, not biting. Nothing is static, we are in a constant state of flux and so are our surroundings, the earth will turn and so will we.
The painting captures a feeling, an experience of being in one place, at one time. As an artist, my primary practice as a performer seeps into my process as a painter. Increasingly, I view the work as a performative act, of applying fluid (paint/ink) to a surface using performance methods. For this piece, a number of failed sketches served as rehearsals and a process emerged of rejecting representative objects, limiting the colour palette and making a decision to no longer look at images but to simply, feel the experience, let go and gesturally, see what happens. The subsequent image is one of those sublime moments when everything seems just right.
Sylvia Causer, M.A. Fine Art
North Sea Observatory
Oil on board 122 x 70 cm
Natterjack Toad, Marsh Helleborine, Marsh Moth
Oil on board 40 x 35 cm
Five
Acrobats
"The acrobats exemplify our skill of trusting, reciprocating and cooperating with each other to achieve things that none of us could alone." Kate Raworth
 Whimbrel |
 Avocet |
 Knot |
 Dunlin |
These images of Lincolnshire's shoreline birds are painted on clear mouth-blown glass, kiln-fired to fuse the pigment permanently into the glass. They are just an inch or two across.
The materials and techniques employed are similar to those available to the medieval glass artists and if cared for, could last centuries. a symbol of hope for the future, standing in opposition to the throw-away scociety, they are small treasures for future generations.
The samphire, which still grows on the Lincolnshire saltmarsh, was an essential componant of the medieval glass-making process, providing the sodium that reduced the melting temperature of glas.
5000 year old oak, the raw material for a proposed sculpture that references changes of climate and sea level through the Holocene, the period when people migrated back to the Britain after the Ice Age. The present Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire fenland was covered in oak forests but as sea levels rose and river drainage was impeded, soil water levels increased and the land became marshy, killing the trees, which then fell into the anaerobic conditions of the developing peat bog. There they stayed until modern agricultural drainage resulted in peat shrinkage and farmers hauled the tree trunks out to avoid snagging on plough-shares. The carbon captured by photosynthesis in these trees during the Holocene, and then by the sphagnum moss and other marsh plants that formed the peat, has now largely been returned to the atmosphere during the Anthropocene, the human-dominated geological epoch in which we are playing our part. We drained the swamp, allowed the peat to decompose and burnt the bog-oaks. These are the remaining fragments of a once great forest, upcycled and repurposed, to ensure their carbon remains sequestered.
One of the logs has been transformed into a set of stools. They do not have labels saying "Please Do Not Touch" but instead visitors to the exhibition are invited to sit and contemplate the vastness of time since the wood was living and to look forward to a similar stratech of time into the future. People are asked to discuss with each other how the Lincolnshire coast may develop, what sort of world we are creating, what movements of populations will be forced in the coming decades to millennia. Will there even be humans walking on this planet?
Lincolnshire Time and Tide Bell Community Interest Company is a not-for profit organisation, registered at Companies House. Company Number 10934941
