Below are photos taken on two research trips from week two of my residency at Aberystwyth Arts Centre. The first was a six and a half hour long walk along the Wales Coastal Path between Llanrhystud and Aberystwyth. It was breathtaking! The flora and fauna, seas and skies, angles, colours, tones and textures, were all engrossing.
The spirit of discovery I experienced on this walk took me back to my childhood, when in the Kent countryside I first began exploring nature. Primary school visits to Cranbrook and Swattenden were recorded in hand made journals. The objects of interest I found on these visits were flowers, decaying leaves, fragments of bark, stones and shards of pottery and glass. Early signs of a sustained interest.
The second trip shifted my focus and brought a different atmosphere to the research as grey skies and rain hung in the air. I took the steam train along the Vale of Rheidol Railway to Devils Bridge. At first it was the steam from the train interacting with and obscuring the view that proved engaging but as the train climbed higher and the clouds descended, the rain on the windows rendered a beautiful distortion and brought a sense of the mood outside. Finally, at Devils Bridge the mountains, forests and rainclouds came into their own as I walked along the steep path.
