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My autumn woodland

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 17:41:44 GMT

Wonderful Autumn

I planted this woodland - with help! - in the winter of 2000. It's now such a delight to walk the paths, enjoy the colours, hear the birds and occasionally see the deer - and the rabbits!

Sounds of Palestine

Tue, 15 Jul 2025 10:20:16 GMT

Donating to Sounds of Palestine

This painting is one of three that sold last week at the Music on the Moor event.

I donate 10% of all my sales to 'Sounds of Palestine'. This is a community music project using music education as a medium to achieve long term social change for the children and families involved.

The program is free of charge for the children.

www.soundsofpalestine.org

Below is the thank you letter I have received.

Music in the Moor

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 11:29:18 GMT

Music - Literature - Paintings - Photography

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This Music on the Moor Festival is a treat - beautiful places to visit, the moorland landscape, and superb live music.. Hopefully tis will now be an annual event.

Sou'-Sou'-West Gallery

Sun, 25 May 2025 15:26:30 GMT

This is a subtitle for your new post

Here at Symondsbury Estate - near Bridgeport and not far from Lyme Regis - we have our 21 Group show at the Sou'-Sou'-West Gallery. There's also a cafe, shops and plants - it's a lovely place to visit. The exhibition continues until 15th June.

a walk around Hawks Tor

Sun, 11 May 2025 10:42:16 GMT

One of the closest tors to where I live, Hawks Tor on the eastern side of Bodmin Moor

A walk here is always inspiring and beautiful. The hill with those granite boulders on the summit, and prehistoric settlements to be found on the lower slopes.

Kurt Jackson at the Cornwall Gallery

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 17:27:22 GMT

Kurt Jackson - #Biodiversity

at the Cornwall Museum and Gallery, Truro

Paintings, sculpture, and mixed media works looking at the ecologically rich world we still live in, but also how things are changing.

https://cornwallmuseum.org/exhibition/kurt-jackson-biodiversity/

Kilmar Tor stones

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 12:38:31 GMT

Finding ancient stone structures on Bodmin Moor

The image above is a cairn and cyst, a prehistoric burial site, on the slopes of Kilmar Tor on Bodmin Moor. It's not easy to find, but now, in the winter when the bracken has died away, it's clear to see.

Below - more images of this, and of Bronze Age round houses (you can see the stones either side of a doorway) and stone wall creating enclosures. And two wonderful curly-horned rams!

I walk here often, and its always so inspring to find traces of ancient human actives here on the moor.

late afternoon walk

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 12:26:21 GMT

in the last of the afternoon sunshine

I usually start or end the day with a walk (or a run). This one is from my garden, along the local lanes, across fields. and a footpath that crosses a steam over the old granite clapper bridge. Totally relaxing in this beautiful valley.

Bearah

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 10:17:25 GMT

Autumn walk to Bearah Tor

Lane to the quarry then up around the tor.

My Boxing Day walk

Sat, 04 Jan 2025 10:04:03 GMT

Kilmar Tor in the miast and blue skies

Van Gogh at the National Gallery

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 16:56:14 GMT

Van Gogh - poets and lovers

At the National Gallery, London

This exhibition was such a treat. Here a just a few of the beautiful paintings and drawings at this wonderful event.

Van Gogh chose a great variety of motifs from the public garden in from of his home in Arles, in the south of France, and later within the confines of the hospital of St-Paul de Mausole at Saint-Remy-de-Provence. He aimed to convey meaning rather than accuracy, recording nature freely, adjusting compositions and sometimes adding figures.

It's a hundred years since the National Gallery purchased the Sunflowers, and this exhibition is the chief among many events celebrating the gallery's bicentenary,

Art in the Church

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 16:37:14 GMT

The re-opening of our historic parish church

Our parish church, St Torney's, closed 5 years ago but has now been restored by the Churches Conservation Trust. It is a Grade 1 listed building, in North Hill village i n the beautiful Lynher Valley on the edge of Bodmin Moor.

More about the church here: st-torney-north-hill.html

The re-opening event is October 19th, with the following day open to all for quiet enjoyment of the church.

on the north coast

Sat, 12 Oct 2024 15:13:32 GMT

A few photos from days out this summer on Cornwall's north coast

These cliffs are between Tintagel and Boscastle

Medals and riots

Sun, 11 Aug 2024 11:04:49 GMT

Medals and Riots

W hether or not you've been watching the Olympics and cheering for Team GB , here's an article thinking about our summer of riots here in UK and celebrating medals abroad. https://www.theguardian.com/.../medals-and-riots-why-a...

August garden

Sat, 10 Aug 2024 16:16:15 GMT

My wild garden in August

My wildlife friendly garden gets out of hand in August!

Foxgloves

Tue, 18 Jun 2024 15:26:50 GMT

Beautiful, toxic, and provides us with a drug called digoxin

So many Foxgloves this year - in the garden, along the hedgerows and even out onto the moorland.

Foxglove (Didigtalis purpurea); can reach height of nearly 2m, are either biennial or perennial. The flower spike has many purple bells shaped with speckles of brown/white inside. Bees crawl in to collect nectar, the small seeds are spread by the wind.

T he Latin name , Digitalis, refers to the shape of the flowers which can fit over the human finger. The common name may also refer to this as a derivation from 'folks gloves' and nothing to do with foxes.

All parts of the foxglove are poisonous.

The drug digitalis - which contains the active ingredient digoxin which is a steroid glycoside and is used in small doses as a cardiac stimulant - is extracted from foxgloves.

Isles of Scilly

Sat, 27 Apr 2024 16:34:20 GMT

A few days on the Isles of Scilly

This was my birthday month, so as a little celebration we stayed at Hellbay Hotel on Bryher

A short flight from Lands End airport to St Mary's mainland Cornwall. Returning a few days later on the Scillonian to Penzance harbour.

Some good art at the hotel, including Ivon Hitchens and Rose Hilton:

Beautiful stained glass windows in the little Church on Bryher:

new gallery at Rock

Sun, 21 Apr 2024 13:47:59 GMT

Projects Twenty Two
at Pityme, Rock in North Cornwall

KALEIDOSCOPE

A group exhibition of contemporary art from Cornwall, curated by Dr Matt Retallick

23RD MARCH - 7TH MAY 2024

https://projectstwentytwo.co.uk

This is a lovely space and a great exhibition.

Limekiln Gallery 2024

Sun, 14 Apr 2024 09:22:55 GMT

My paintings exhibited at the Limeklin Gallery, Calstock, along handwoven wall hangings by Mark Cullen

January trees

Tue, 16 Jan 2024 17:30:38 GMT

Morning blue sky and trees

My daily walk through the trees is always uplifting and awe-inspiring.

Helen Frankenthaler

Tue, 12 Dec 2023 16:54:44 GMT

12th December is the birthday of abstract artist Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011)

Helen Frankenthaler was born in New York 12 Dec. 1928.For six decades she was a leading exponent of American Abstract Expressionist painting and she is often regarded as a bridge between the first and second generations of the movement.

For her paintings she used a ‘soak-stain’ technique on unprimed canvas, leaving parts of the canvas unpainted to help structure the composition. As Frankenthaler noted: ‘[The] “negative” space has just as active a role as the “positive” painted space. The negative spaces maintain shapes of their own and are not empty.’

More images on the Tate website: https://www.tate.org.uk/search?type=all&q=Helen+Frankenthaler

She was an important figure in the transition from Abstract Expressionism to Colour Field Painting. In her early work she was influenced by Jackson Pollock and she developed his drip technique by pouring and running very thin paint—like washes of watercolour—onto canvases laid on the floor. She first used this method in Mountains and Sea (1952, the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation’s collection, on loan to NG, Washington), which is regarded as one of the seminal works of post-war American painting. It particularly impressed Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland when they saw it in her studio in 1953. In 1962 Frankenthaler switched from oil to acrylic paint, which allowed her to achieve more richly saturated colour.

Text source: The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford University Press)

https://artuk.org/discover/artists/frankenthaler-helen-19282011?utm_source=Art+UK+Newsletter&utm_campaign=53997d86ea-WEEKLY_NEWSLETTER_2023_12_12&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d3a24f9a65-53997d86ea-106575921&mc_cid=53997d86ea&mc_eid=8cf717681f

More about her life and work: https://artuk.org/discover/stories/the-power-of-helen-frankenthalers-lyrical-abstractions?utm_source=Art+UK+Newsletter&utm_campaign=53997d86ea-WEEKLY_NEWSLETTER_2023_12_12&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d3a24f9a65-53997d86ea-106575921&mc_cid=53997d86ea&mc_eid=8cf717681f

Tate St Ives

Thu, 07 Dec 2023 10:10:16 GMT

These are my favourites from my recent visit to Tate St Ives

Mustapha Hafid 'Voyage Cosmic' 1972 (Casablanca School visiting exhibition)

Peter Lanyon 'Porthleven' 1951

Patric Heron 'Green and Purple Painting with Blue Disc' 1960

William Scott 'White, Sand, Ochre' 1961

on Bodmin Moor

Fri, 01 Dec 2023 16:59:23 GMT

A wonderful walk on the nearby hills of Bodmin Moor this morning

The bright white snow on the hills and granite boulders, and brilliant blue sky. An exhilarating walk not far from home.

more stunning colours

Mon, 20 Nov 2023 18:09:56 GMT

A walk from home along the footpaths

The views are to Bearah Tor and Sharp Tor.

My autumn woodland walk

Thu, 02 Nov 2023 17:44:53 GMT

Each day I see afresh the colours and textures in my we woodland walk.

Limekiln Gallery

Wed, 25 Oct 2023 11:16:19 GMT

The Limekiln Gallery at Calstock, Cornwall

Thanks to Bernie and Ley for exhibiting our 21 Group works in their Autumn Show.

I'm very pleased that my three paintings sold.

Autumn colours

Sat, 21 Oct 2023 16:41:49 GMT

Enjoying the colours of autumn in my garden

Incredible colours - The Rumps

Sun, 14 May 2023 09:14:25 GMT

Stunning colours of the north Cornish coast

An amazing day, 12th May, such incredible colours of the sea, the sky and the wonderful coastal flowers.

Action, Gesture, Paint

Tue, 21 Mar 2023 10:28:01 GMT

'Action, Gesture, Paint: Woman artists and Global Abstraction 1940-70'

Not able to get to this exhibition Whitechapel Gallery in London, so sent for the catalogue which is a beautiful book. It has essays, artist's biographies and images of all the works at the exhibition.

The exhibition is on until the end of May www.whitechapelgallery.org

Some notes

Griselda Pollock , professor emerita at University Leeds

Discussion on the feminist challenge, and how so few women were included in art history of this period, and being excluded solely on grounds of gender. She found some critics wrote about artist-women or artists of colour, but 'dismissively applying value-laden and gendering distinctions...'.

Why is she using the term 'artist-women'? The term 'women artists' automatically implies that artists are men. I recall the same with football at last summer Euros - around the stadium was the scrolling message: it's football played by women, not women's football as if that's a different game.

Exploring Abstract Expressionism

abstraction is not an abstracting of form and colour from an image world
it involved sustaining a tense balance between the materially of the paint - as paint - and its capacity to evoke visual associations, or worse, arriving at an image
abstract painting must balance itself betw een remaining sheer materiality (of the paint) and risk becoming metaphoric.
it has, instead, to sustain metonym - the work registering the action of the body that made the gesture without arriving at a single meaning or remaining merely a mess of wasted paint.

This last point struck a strong chord with me. I often find I waste paint - by painting over something that hasn't reached that point of its own expression. Balancing a willed accident and a managed event, adding paint and moving it on the canvas or scraping through or spreading and making a line.....

nearby hills of Bodmin Moor

Thu, 02 Mar 2023 14:29:52 GMT

A walk around Kilmar Tor on Bodmin Moor

Just a mile from my home and studio are these granite tors of Bodmin Moor.

I often walk here, and today, with the glorious blue sty and clear air, I took a few photos to show you.

In the image above there's a carved flour-de-lis. When cut into the granite in 1864 these would have also been painted to clearly mark the upper limits of granite quarrying on the tors (rocky peaks) of Kilmar, Bearah and Stowe Hill to protect them from destruction and retain their natural profiles, formed over the millennia.

My winter garden

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 14:00:07 GMT

Enjoying my winter garden

From the deep umber and sienna of winter plants, to the blue-greys of wet slate and - on some days - brilliant blue skies.

And this short video is my newly reinstated garden pond, which I hope the frogs, toads and newts are going to enjoy in the coming weeks.

last of the autumn colours

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 17:33:24 GMT

The last of the beautiful autumn colours in our little woodland

I love the light filtering through these autumn leaves and the contrast with the darkness of the branches.

Recent paintings enjoying the tones and trxtures:

November trees

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 17:13:25 GMT

November trees

A time of brilliant colours but also the drama of leaf fall and trees become dark and bare against dramatic skies.

I've edited these images to black and white to emphasise the strong linear shapes.

A painting this month using these strong black lines:

the scallop shell sculpture

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 08:24:39 GMT

Aldeburgh, Suffolk

The scallop shell sculpture by Maggie Hambling, who lives and works locally. The sculpture is a tribute to composer Benjamin Britten who lived in Aldeburgh and walked almost daily along the stretch of coastline between there and Thorpeness.

Then along the beach and around the salt marshes by the River Alde.

Open Studio

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 16:53:02 GMT

A lovely week of Open Studios Cornwall 2022

Whilst there were considerably fewer visitor this year than previously - many possible reasons - it was good to see my studio space tidied up and ready to show a selection of my work.

Always a joy to welcome friends and new visitors to my studio, and to enjoy good conversation. Thank you for coming!

These three still life paintings went off to new homes:

And two abstract works:

And one small tree painting:

Bossiney Haven & Rocky Valley

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 16:20:17 GMT

A day to remember for the colours of the Atlantic ocean, the cliffs, and the little black sheep with their curled horns.

Standing on Willapark, looking to The Island off Tintagel, with the ruins of King Arthur's castle.

Black sheep grazing the headland. Then walking towards Boscastle, along the coast path above Bossiney Haven to Rocky Valley.

Rock carvings in Rocky Valley

The sign reads:

LABYRINTH PATTERN CARVINGS PROBABLY OF THE EARLY BRONZE AGE 1800 - 1400 BC

International Women's Day

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 15:22:22 GMT

This year, as Russian military invade and terrorise across Ukraine , b elow is a message from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy delivered today, on International Women’s Day, which is an important official holiday in Russia and Ukraine dating back from the Soviet era.

"Ukrainians, we usually celebrate this holiday, the holiday of spring. We congratulate our women, our daughters, wives, mothers. Usually. But not today.

Today I cannot say the traditional words. I just can’t congratulate you. I can’t, when there are so many deaths. When there is so much grief, when there is so much suffering. When the war continues..."

Women are often feted with flowers, chocolates and declarations of love, but of course this year has been utterly overshadowed by the horrific tragedy in Ukraine.

See images on www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/mar/08/nternational-womens-day-events-around-world-iwd-2022-live

More: www.internationalwomensday.com

And as I've been making paintings of flowers from my garden this winter I'm looking at this page female-artists-and-flowers

Rusey Cliff

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 16:35:53 GMT

Rusey Cliff to Beeny Cliff

Stunning colours today, of bracken against the dark cliffs, the blue-grey sea and sky, with splashes of sunlight.

This image above is looking to Rusey cliff on Cornwall's north coast, north of Boscastle.

I saw occasional glimpses of Lundy Island on the horizon.

No seals, although I'd heard seals have been seen much further south. We have seen them here, but probably in the summer - and I didn't get as far as Seals Hole which nearer to Boscastle.

Winter trees

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Sun, 09 Jan 2022 14:45:55 GMT

Winter trees

I become entranced by these wonderful, mid-winter trees.

Autumn trees

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Thu, 18 Nov 2021 16:59:59 GMT

Favourite time of year in our little woodland

And today I visited the woodland at Cotehele, sorry no photos - sometime I just need to walk, breathe it in, enjoy the wonderful sensory experiences, and the uplifting pleasure of walking along the leaf-strewn paths, with the majestic mature trees and splashes of sunlight through the branches.

Birdwood House Gallery

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Tue, 09 Nov 2021 11:20:47 GMT

Exhibition at Birdwood House Gallery, Totnes

I spent an enjoyable morning stewarding here with plenty of visitors and many appreciative comments.

The show continues until 13th November, with other artists in this group stewarding throughout the week.

Totnes is a delightful town - my first visit, an interesting High Street and everyone so friendly.

Birdwood House, 44 High Street (by the market place), plenty of parking at Heath Nursery car park.

Painting is.....

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 15:45:11 GMT

Text on display at a show by John Hoyland:

These are my thoughts:

Painting is my joy of seeing

Painting is my world of nature

Painting is the colours of life

Painting is the leaf that floats and lands

The greenness

The blueness

Th yellows and ochres

The contrast

as life becomes decay

the withdrawing into the darkness of winter

to settle into the season of rest and hope.

I'm using the colours of autumn, the lines and textures in the environment I see and experience each day.

Autumn

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 09:11:37 GMT

My favourite time of year for the fantastic colours.

These are all from my garden.

Climate Emergency

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Fri, 01 Oct 2021 09:11:07 GMT

George Monbiot - he writes about what no-one want to read or hear

'Sustaining our life-support systems means doing less of almost everything. But this notion – that should be central to a new, environmental ethics – is secular blasphemy.'

In this arictcle Monbiot talks about the way we look at the different problems for ecology and biodiversity, deforestation, over-fishing, pollution and all the stresses that human activity places on our environment. And how these ar considered individually but that: "Nature recognises no such divisions. As Earth systems are assaulted by everything at once, each source of stress compounds the others."

In this article he talks of impacts that are laying waste to entire living systems. How our actions and desires create the the terrible crisis our planet is in now.

" We have no hope of emerging from this full-spectrum crisis unless we dramatically reduce economic activity. "

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/29/green-growth-economic-activity-environment

More articles on his website: www.monbiot.com/category/climate-change/

rocks at Millook

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Tue, 13 Jul 2021 16:51:13 GMT

Inspiring my next theme: the rocks and strata at Millook, north Cornwall

A fantastic walk down the valley to reach Millook - where my great grandfather was born. As children we were told stories of the donkeys carrying wood and seaweed collected from the beach, back to the farm and the fields.

The sea was calm and tide was low, so I was able explore the rocks that are usually under the breaking waves of Atlantic surf.

I found these rocks particularly interesting. Layers of rock tilted, and striped, with indentations, cracks and small pools gradually forming as the sea washes over.

north coast path

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 17:02:33 GMT

A day on the north Cornwall coast - crossing the SW coast path and a steep drop down to the beach

These images are so typical of our coastal paths. Today the sea was very calm, so just one surfer. It's my favourite coastal walk, a little more remote and usually very quiet.

The Mother Tree

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 09:01:15 GMT

'Finding the Mother Tree' by Suzanne Simard

Mid-Summer

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 17:06:14 GMT

Some snippets of my mid-summer walk from the garden

My wild garden

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Wed, 16 Jun 2021 13:46:30 GMT

I love the colours and textures in my rather wild garden!

It's also full of the buzzing and humming of insects, birds whizzing back and forth, occasionally I spot a hedgehog, frogs and newts, and in the evening or early morning there may be a female roe deer grazing.

Shed

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 15:42:59 GMT

This shed seemed to fit my latest paintings!

It's the colours - the rust and the grey of the old corrugated iron sheets.

It's the weathered and textured surface.

And the fact that after all this time, it's still just there.

Time and place.

I'm re-using some old canvases, allowing some of the original painting to show or influence the new composition.

Here are the two small ones.

Carey Tor & boundary stones

Mon, 19 Apr 2021 09:06:34 GMT

Walking from Stonaford to Carey Tor

Then across the the parish boundary stones to each Nine Stones Stone Circle

April trees

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 17:10:55 GMT

Feeling the energy of new growth

A stunning day. Swelling buds on the trees, delicate white flowers of the blackthorn, dark branches against the deep blue sky.

Bearah Tor

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 14:34:50 GMT

Bearah Tor on Bodmin Moor

A beautiful sunny afternoon yesterday, so I headed to the hills. 45 Minutes to reach the lane to Bearah Tor, then uphill through the wind-twisted trees, the granite clitter from 19th century querying, to the awe inspiring boulders on the tor itself.

Here the granite is broken, shuttered and abandoned when no more was there worth taking. The shape of the tor itself was protected by the equivalent then of our English Heritage - see the final image here of the flour-de lis that were carved clod=se to the summit to indicate the upper limit for the quarrying.

These are the colours, textures and forms that lodge in my visual memory, and emerge in my paintings - from the twisted and gnarled trees forms to the surface patterns of lichen and weathered granite, the shadows between the boulders, and the skyline of the tors.

Lynher Valley

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Wed, 17 Mar 2021 14:37:56 GMT

Climate change and the Lynher Valley

I've spent time in the last six months developing two websites. Both have been of great importance to me:

walk on the hills

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Sun, 24 Jan 2021 14:58:06 GMT

Bearah Tor, Kilmar and Hawk's Tor

Walking from my studio, across the valley and up to these beautiful hills on Twelve Men's Moor.

Stunning light and colours.

Port Lane

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 10:14:12 GMT

A walk from home to the edge of Bodmin Moor and along Port Lane

As well as stunning colours , and contrasts of trees against the brilliant foliage and sky, I'm see wonderful abstract compositions.

Hawks Tor walk

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Sat, 07 Nov 2020 17:36:15 GMT

Another beautiful, beautiful walk, from home to Hawks Tor on Bodmin Moor.

More stunning autumn colours, then granite boulders against a grey sky, and wonderful moorland views.

From home across the Lynher valley to follow the lane uphill and onto the moor , to Hawks Tor. Clambering along the granite ridge, I chatted to two climbers as they prepared their ropes to abseil down. Then following the wall, down through the rough to where sheep and cattle graze. Finally following the bridleway down though Castick Wood to the footbridge back over the River Lynher.

Stara

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 16:50:54 GMT

Wonderful colours and sounds at Stara Community Woodland

Exhilarating walk from home along roads so quiet (lockdown) and footpaths through fields to Stara Bridge, then alongside the River Lynher in the community woodland. Beautiful colours as the sunlight caught the autumn leaves and gently cascading water.

autumn walks

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Mon, 02 Nov 2020 17:21:57 GMT

Colours and rhythms of autumn on my daily walks

Under my feet, above my head, entranced by colours and textures, as I walk familiar routes.

Maggi Hamblin

Wed, 28 Oct 2020 10:13:29 GMT

Maggi Hamblin: Making love with paint

This programme, now on, BBC Sounds shows her studio, many of her works including portraits and wave paintings.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000nx23/maggi-hambling-making-love-with-the-paint

Leskernick

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 09:16:32 GMT

A day on Bodmin Moor, walking to Leskernick from Bowithick.

On the southern side of Leskernick Hill, on West Moor, is an extensive prehistoric settlement of Bronze Age roundhouses, enclosures and field system. See https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/environment-and-planning/strategic-historic-environment-service/cornwall-and-scilly-historic-environment-record/access-to-monuments/find-by-name/find-monuments-by-name/f-q/leskernick/

It was a hot day, stunning views, and this amazing well-preserved site amongst the clitter.

Then a walk back along the old leats that once fed water for the tin-streaming.

a walk to Scrade

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Thu, 10 Sep 2020 15:57:27 GMT

super refreshing day on Cornwall's north coast

This was a day to relax and refresh after Open Studio. So heading for the windswept cliffs of north Cornwall, first a visit to St Genny's Church, to pay respects to the ancestors.

Then along the woodland footpath to cross the valley and up to the stunning clifftop footpath, walking northwards before the steep climb down to Scrade beach.

The 'folded chevron' strata in the cliff face and angled rock formations down to the sea are amazing; and the stones with their white stripes of quartz running through the shale.

Landscape directs its own images

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 09:24:23 GMT

Ali Smith's books

I'm re-reading these beautifully written books by Ali Smith - the final one 'Summer' has just been published.

The title of this post is a quote she has placed in the forward of Winter:

'Landscape dirt its own images' Barbara Hepworth.

And the cover images are of course be David Hockney. I haven't seen these but remember watching a documentary with him in it standing by these huge paintings.

The quote is iso true for my paintings. My earlier works were all landscapes of the hills and fields and lanes in this part of Cornwall. For the last couple of years I've become much more abstract - but the landscape is till there, in the marks, the colours, the shapes that may become hidden as the paint layers are added, and essentially in the final piece.

Open Studio

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Fri, 04 Sep 2020 16:16:34 GMT

Enjoying a week of visitors to the studio

So good to see friends returning to my studio again this year, and also to welcome new visitors to Open Studio Cornwall.

Usually this event is held at the end of May, so I was expecting a quiet week - but just one day with no visitors but that's fine with me!

Thank you to all who visited.

See more images on Open Studio page

changing how we see farmland

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Sat, 25 Jul 2020 12:05:05 GMT

returning nature to farmland

I've been involved with environmental issues and actions for many years.

This year with I've been part of our parish climate emergency action group to prepare and present and information fayre. I would have liked to have this list for that event, it really helps to see clearly how/what actions will make a difference:

What zero emissions in 2050 would mean for the UK

The Committee on Climate Change says cutting greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050 is necessary, affordable and desirable. Here are some of the actions needed to make that happen:

• Petrol and diesel cars banned from sale ideally by 2030 and 2035 at the latest.

• Quadrupling clean electricity production from wind, solar and perhaps nuclear, plus batteries to store it and connections to Europe to share the load.

• Connection of new homes to the gas grid ending in 2025, with boilers using clean hydrogen or replaced by electric powered heat pumps. Plus, all homes and appliances being highly efficient.

• Beef, lamb and dairy consumption falling by 20%, though this is far lower than other studies recommend and a bigger shift to plant-based diets would make meeting the zero target easier.

• A fifth of all farmland – 15% of the UK – being converted to tree planting and growing biofuel crops and restoration of peat bogs. This is vital to take CO2 out of the air to balance unavoidable emissions from cattle and planes.

• 1.5bn new trees will be needed, meaning more than 150 football pitches a day of new forests from now to 2050.

• Flying would not be banned, but the number of flights will depend on how much airlines can cut emissions with electric planes or biofuels.

This year I'm leaving a third of my meadow for nature to take its course. There are already many wild flowers here, and mature trees. The rest will be cut for hay and grazed by sheep. Back in 2000 I planed a 4-acre woodland.

I love these colours of the grasses, the thistles and the dark shadows below the trees. See previous post for images.

I'm re-reading Dieter Helm's Green and Prosperous Land - a blueprint for rescuing the British Countryside (2019) . Two chapters particularly relevant for this part of the UK where I live: 4 - Green agriculture, and 5 - The uplands.

a buzz in the meadow

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 14:06:29 GMT

I walk across the meadow everyday, nor just for exercise but also the joy of seeing nature's colours, seeing insect life amongst the wild flowers and grasses, bramble patches, hedgerow scrub and the majesty of maturing trees.

Leaving the meadow to grow without cutting or grazing for the spring and summer of this year, and now we are seeing the wonderful biodiversity. The roe deer enjoys this meadow, as well as hedgehog and other small mammals. The u ncut grasses sway in the breeze attracting insects, the colours of wild flowers are dotted amongst the grasses, and on the brambles and thistle patch butterflies settle and spread their wings.

These images are from this mornings walk, and include:

butterflies - peacock, large white, comma, ringlet, meadow brown

flowers - white and red clover, thistle, bramble, bird's-foot trefoil, various from the daisy family, buttercup, and more yet to be identified.

Post title borrowed from the book by Dave Coulson, A Buzz in the Meadow , published in 2014.

Education and natural history

Tue, 16 Jun 2020 17:14:46 GMT

A greater understanding of life on Earth would help us protect it

A GCSE in Natural History - the scientific study of animals or plants, especially as concerned with observation rather than experiment, and presented in popular form - is a proposal by author Mary Colwell .

Teaching young children to recognise tree and bird species may feel a long way removed from geopolitical priorities - such as sea-level rises, global heating, deforestation, ocean acidification, polution, habitat loss - but we desperately need young people to be knowledgeable about how life developed and to have a good awareness of ecosystems and out own reliance on nature.

The predicted impacts of climate crisis on Earth's climate systems need well-informed young peopled, learning through education that faces forwards and outwards to look at the present situation and future of our natural world.

garden paintings

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Wed, 10 Jun 2020 11:45:15 GMT

Colours and composition outside my studio

Each morning I stand outside in the early morning light. Sometimes I see this roe deer, calmly walking up through the garden, then onto the hedge as it is in this photo, to jump down into the meadow. She's a frequent evening visitor. Update: Here's a lovely article about roe deer https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/05/country-diary-roe-deer-buck-the-trend-of-decline

This June morning the low sunlight emphasised the beautiful trees and shadows. I saw strong compositions here for paintings, and to move a way from the neutral colours and use the greens and each colours of the garden.

So here are two new works in progress my studio wall.

granite walk

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Mon, 25 May 2020 17:29:38 GMT

First walk back out on the hills since lockdown started

Kilmar Tor and Hawks Tor are the nearest hills on Bodmin Moor and I look across to this skyline each day.

Today I collected photos of the beautiful colours in the granite and the lichens growing n the boulders,

And so enjoying listening to the skylarks, stonechats, and a cuckoo.

contemporary artists

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Thu, 21 May 2020 16:41:44 GMT

Starting a list of artists whose work I like to look at, some I follow on instagram.

Some of these artists were from my previous blog, and I'll be adding more as I go along.

I've borrowed thumbnails from their websites - I hope that's OK.

Alyssa di Edwardo www.alyssadiedwardo.com

Margaret Fitzgerald: www.margaretfitzgeraldartist.com

Alf Lohr: www.alflohr.org

garden colours

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Tue, 19 May 2020 14:09:12 GMT

Finding the colours from my garden for new paintings

In the studio today I find myself picking up the reds and orange tubes of paint and spreading these onto a canvas - see detail in top image - wow! So a walk around my garden soon shows me where this is coming from. Each day I'm looking out at this exuberant display of blossom of the most lovely colours. Can I make then work in my paintings?

We'll see.....!

I'm also reminded of the paintings by Patrick Heron of his wonderful Cornish garden - see the previous post.

artists at Tate St Ives

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Tue, 19 May 2020 13:55:25 GMT

As I select new colours for new paintings I'm remembering my 2018 visit to the newly opened extension at Tate St Ives featuring the large paintings by Patrick Heron.

These are some images from my 2018 visit to Tate St Ives opening the new wing - fantastic large paintings by Patrick Heron, plus some other favourites from the permanent collection.

I read again some of the exhibition notes that I find helpful - texts written by Heron who has also been an art critic:

'.... organisational patterns .... which had the complexity of that sort of painting which puts itself at the disposal of the received image from the natural scene. I'm thinking of the dots and dashes of a Bonnard, or even a late Monet.' (Patrick Heron 1987)

gardening & global crisis

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Sat, 16 May 2020 09:59:20 GMT

There's another crisis we don't talk about

In my garden the vegetable seedlings have just been hit by frost - I'm hoping they will survive. I didn't protect them well enough.

There are fewer bees and insects again this year. We need all these pollinators. It's a global problem.

I worry (and try not to) about the bigger issues. At present we are so concerned about the coronavirus pandemic that other major problems are being ignored. Both the Covid and climate catastrophes are not misfortunes that befell us - they are a pattern of decisions that we humans are taking.

But just perhaps the same worldwide awareness and response to Covid could help shape a new way forward - to tackle climate crisi which will be an even bigger global problem for years to come and for future generations.

Here's an extract from Professor Stephen Hawking's book Brief Answers to Big Questions first published in 2018 (he died on 14th March 2018):

The Earth is under threat from so many areas that is is difficult for me to be positive. The threats are too big and too numerous.

First, the Earth is becoming too small for us. Our physical resources are boing drained at an alarming rate. We have presented our planet with the disastrous gift of climate change. Rising temperatures, reduction of the polar ice caps, deforestation, over-population, disease, war, famine, lack of water and decimation of animal species; these are all solvable but so far have not been solved.

I'm so pleased with my new water butt - made from recycled plastic.

artists support pledge

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Wed, 13 May 2020 09:56:13 GMT

#artistsupportpledge

See my shop page for works available for #artistsupportpledge.

new website - new blog

183:826767648 (Jill Goodman) — Tue, 12 May 2020 10:21:53 GMT

This was my last walk before lockdown

Bodmin Moor, not far from my studio, on 22nd March 2020. I walk here often.

Lockdown, due to the Covid-19 global pandemic, began the following day here in the UK.

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My autumn woodland

Wonderful Autumn

Sounds of Palestine

Donating to Sounds of Palestine

Music in the Moor

Music - Literature - Paintings - Photography ﻿

Sou'-Sou'-West Gallery

This is a subtitle for your new post

a walk around Hawks Tor

One of the closest tors to where I live, Hawks Tor on the eastern side of Bodmin Moor

Kurt Jackson at the Cornwall Gallery

Kurt Jackson - #Biodiversity

at the Cornwall Museum and Gallery, Truro

Kilmar Tor stones

Finding ancient stone structures on Bodmin Moor

late afternoon walk

in the last of the afternoon sunshine

Bearah

Autumn walk to Bearah Tor

My Boxing Day walk

Kilmar Tor in the miast and blue skies

Van Gogh at the National Gallery

Van Gogh - poets and lovers

At the National Gallery, London

Art in the Church

The re-opening of our historic parish church

Our parish church, St Torney's, closed 5 years ago but has now been restored by the Churches Conservation Trust. It is a Grade 1 listed building, in North Hill village i n the beautiful Lynher Valley on the edge of Bodmin Moor.

More about the church here: st-torney-north-hill.html

The re-opening event is October 19th, with the following day open to all for quiet enjoyment of the church.

on the north coast

A few photos from days out this summer on Cornwall's north coast

Medals and riots

Medals and Riots

August garden

My wild garden in August

Foxgloves

Beautiful, toxic, and provides us with a drug called digoxin

Isles of Scilly

A few days on the Isles of Scilly

new gallery at Rock

Projects Twenty Two at Pityme, Rock in North Cornwall

KALEIDOSCOPE

Limekiln Gallery 2024

My paintings exhibited at the Limeklin Gallery, Calstock, along handwoven wall hangings by Mark Cullen

January trees

Morning blue sky and trees

Helen Frankenthaler

12th December is the birthday of abstract artist Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011)

Tate St Ives

These are my favourites from my recent visit to Tate St Ives

on Bodmin Moor

A wonderful walk on the nearby hills of Bodmin Moor this morning

more stunning colours

A walk from home along the footpaths

My autumn woodland walk

Each day I see afresh the colours and textures in my we woodland walk.

Limekiln Gallery

The Limekiln Gallery at Calstock, Cornwall

Autumn colours

Enjoying the colours of autumn in my garden

Incredible colours - The Rumps

Stunning colours of the north Cornish coast

Action, Gesture, Paint

'Action, Gesture, Paint: Woman artists and Global Abstraction 1940-70'

Some notes

nearby hills of Bodmin Moor

A walk around Kilmar Tor on Bodmin Moor

My winter garden

Enjoying my winter garden

last of the autumn colours

The last of the beautiful autumn colours in our little woodland

November trees

November trees

the scallop shell sculpture

Aldeburgh, Suffolk

Open Studio

A lovely week of Open Studios Cornwall 2022

Bossiney Haven & Rocky Valley

A day to remember for the colours of the Atlantic ocean, the cliffs, and the little black sheep with their curled horns.

Music - Literature - Paintings - Photography

Projects Twenty Two
at Pityme, Rock in North Cornwall