Fabulous Fungi

All of my life I have had a healthy interest in mushrooms. My late grandad was an avid mushroom forager and would often be known to fry up his foraged goods for breakfast. I always found this vaguely terrifying, but on reflection probably quite normal for someone from rural Lincolnshire who worked on a farm for most of his formative years.

I have many mushroom photos I’ve taken over the years. The most fascinating I found on the Ercall in Shropshire around 10 years ago and still remember it vividly to this day. As if it was covered in countless red jewels (subsequent searching for this photo and research has identified this as either a Devils tooth or a Mealy tooth thanks to my good friend Montalo).

But during the autumn of 2019 I decided to take my fungi fascination up a notch and instead of casually noticing fungi while out walking I became a self certified fungi hunter and started actively walking specifically to find the most amazing mushrooms I could.

Throughout 2019 I made a specific effort on different walks to focus on different things. This had a huge seasonal impact of course and spring was lots of trips to see the ducklings, then lots of looking at wild flowers, as summer progressed it was chasing butterflies and dragonflies, then as things changed I started suspiciously rooting about in the undergrowth for fantastic fungi!

Admittedly it did help that this autumn was an absolutely bumper one for mushrooms. Never in my life have I seen so many, and some staggeringly vast! Not to take anything away from the beautifully dainty fungi.

My goal for 2020 is to become far better at identifying them all! While I don't expect to become an expert over night it would be nice to be more aware and knowledgeable on the subject, so this is a good place to start. One of my first tasks of the new year was to buy a pocket identification book to keep in my camera bag at all times. To know nature is to be nature.

Work in progress: The Green Man series

For the longest time, in my first ideas book after finishing University I have had scribblings of series which are still patiently waiting to be realised. Every year I declare I’m going to finally start on my own Green Man series and do justice to these nature spirits I dreamed the faces of so many years ago. And every year things happen, other ideas crop up and I continue to keep them on the back burner.

But as this year drew to a close I decided enough was enough. I started working on progressing my thumbnail sketches into full size line work, and then onto paper, returning to my most common mixed media technique using biro and watercolour (as opposed to my recent dip pen experiments).

One daunting issue with this series has always been the sheer number of ideas I have. If I work on them all the series will be mammoth! So I’ve decided to be selective (for now) and initially work on what I’m calling ‘the four seasons’. It’s quite frustrating as I really want to realise a lot of the other characters, but that may have to be a battle for another day!

Because of the detail involved in these pieces they are proving very time consuming. Never one to make life easy for myself I decided to also incorporate some knotwork in the form of borders as a nod to our Celtic history and pre-Christian traditions and beliefs in Britain. This has proved a real challenge and is somewhat unforgiving if you make any errors. Complete precision is essential but tough. I can see why manuscript scholars claimed they would put one error on each page because only god is perfect, it’s near impossible not to make one! (Good cover story lads!)

So far with these pieces I’ve gotten a lot of pen work done, but as ever with this time of year there’s so few hours of daylight in which to work, making moving onto my watercolour layer difficult indeed.
I’m hoping that now with the passing of midwinter and the lengthening of days once more I can begin to get some colour into the pieces and truly bring them to life!

Derbyshire Woodland Festival

One day entirely by chance I stumbled upon an event on social media which I had never heard of before. It turns out I've been entirely in the dark because Derbyshire Woodland Festival has been running for some time. Quite how it passed me by I have no idea! I'd be lying if I said I had no reservations about what it would be like, but any concerns were totally unfounded. The event was much larger than I had expected and in all honesty, fantastic! There were so many highly skilled, very enthusiastic craftsmen and women making all sorts, from wood, inspired by wood or relating to the woods.

There were a whole host of different skills on display from chair making, carving, basket weaving, boat building, chainsaw sculpting, wood turning, survival skills plus many more. The Viking encampment alone had; a blacksmith, traditional weaving, ink making (as a fountain pen collector and ink obsessive you can imagine how exciting this was), candle making, food, herbs and cooking, arrow making and of course, battle reenactment. There was always something to see, smell and of course eat (were always happy if we spot Spondon Bakery at an event, you know your in for something tasty!).

It has to be said the friendliness and approachability of these craftspeople was second to none. Their enthusiasm for their craft was nothing short of infectious and I loved talking to the many makers who urged me to join them with my artwork next year. I wholeheartedly support the dedication and passion that these creatives are putting into keeping these skills alive, and in turn getting others interested and impassioned about them too.

My honest highlight was the Wild Man of the Woods wandering in the forest, telling tales and singing songs. He immediately felt to be the living embodiment of the ancient oral tradition of story telling and oral history which most cultures have lost since the advent of the written word. British Folklore was founded on people like this, they held all the knowledge of their world and passed it forth to the next generation using this ancient technique. My admiration and fascination with this Green Man was honestly huge. I hadn't quite expected to react in such a way and feel so moved, but he was truly incredible. It felt as though I was glimpsing just for a while, into our pre-christian past, and I felt very at home indeed.

Another heart warming part of the day was the 'hug a hen' stall. Where ex-commercial laying hens are offered a second chance in life after being saved by the charity 'Fresh Start For Hens' who help re-home them all over the country. I didn't personally partake in the Hen hugging (last time I held a hen in my arms was a small Bantam found lost in the road, whom I subsequently fell in love with, named Effie Millais and sadly couldn't keep - best not tempt fate to go through that again!). Hens are lovely, calming creatures and both them and the charity workers seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely!

The excitement of a Battle Reenactment is something I always enjoy, and the one by these vikings was no exception. An old friend of mine was surprisingly among the throng of battle hardened warriors, which bought a smile to my face and certainly made being a spectator even more interesting. I always enjoy seeing groups such as this bringing a slice of history back to life for us. Best of all they all seem to greatly enjoy beating the living shit out of each other! Perhaps I should take it up as a form of stress relief!

I whole heatedly hope that there will be another Derbyshire Woodland Festival as I enjoyed the event immensely. There was so much to see and do and so many wonderful folks to talk to it made for a wonderful day out I would recommend to any other like minded people. Maybe next year we might even get some fine weather to go with the fine entertainment!