My walk this week is the first stage of my visual exploration of local nature and an old and world renown aspect of Swansea’s history – Copperopolis. Click the link if you would like to know more about that history. In the past I have only photographed elements of this industrial history and the nature overtaking it from across the River Tawe and it was good to take the opportunity to look a bit closer at how nature takes over all that we leave behind.
It is good to see how little impact we have on the the natural world, at least in the longer term of our lifespans – even multiple generations of our lives are only a snippet of time in the life of the planet or universe. It is also excitingContinue reading→
My walk this week has been around the area next to Bristol Temple Meads and at the end of this architectural walk I entered the railway station, not just to view its structure and design but talso to listen to its sounds.
The start of my soundscape for this walk, like the photos posted at the start of the week, provide some evidence of people – footsteps and voices – but not nearly as much as you might expect for the number of people that were actually there. Perhaps the sounds of human voices and the actions of individuals were being absorbed or muffled by the three dimensional complexity of the city’s architecture and the activities taking place, such as building construction, trains, traffic, etc.
The sounds inside the station were, as you would expect, different. Aside from the echo and reverberation of the cavernous space, the density of people and subsequently their voices and conversations rose to another level. And then the trains arrived and the background ambience changed again – until the train left.
This walk did not involve much in the way of nature and for me there is no question about which is more pleasant and relaxing (a natural environment), but I still find the urban environment of huge interest and I am just as fascinated by the textures, patterns, shapes and colours to be seen and heard around me in the city as I am in a wood or on a mountain – less relaxed but still interested.
On my walk this week around an area of the Bristol cityscape next to Temple Meads railway station, I was attracted by the patterns and perspectives, and the nuts and bolts of the architecture and construction along the riverside.
A passing walker said he liked the view up the river from under a nearby bridge so I made a point of heading that way. Underneath I found I liked the view of the bridge as much as from it, enjoying the rows and patterns in perspective of nuts and bolts and rivets as well as the dark heavy weight of the structure. The design and engineering of structures like this and all the architecture around me was remarkable. The arrangement of the buildings is also remarkable and looking at them from different angles creates a new jigsaw of shapes with every turn of the head.
My walk this week is around a small central area of city of Bristol next to Temple Meads railway station. I had been for an interview with the Theo Moorman Charitable Trust for an award of funding towards developing new work in my tapestry weaving – the application was successful I am pleased to say.
It was a sunny day and my next appointment for the day was later in the day in Newport where I ended up with another short walk – see last week’s posts. So I took the opportunity to have a little explore of theContinue reading→
My walk this week has been through a space between, a space on the edge of both nature and industry – and nature, of course, wins every time and in so many ways.
Looking at the evidence of man is perhaps not the best way to finish my posts on this walk but there are other elements to the landscape apart from the old tyres and wires. The profusion of old Buddleia bushes will soonContinue reading→
Looking at some of the patterns and features on my triangular urban walk this week, the second side of the triangle provided me with a number of everyday aspects of the city with, to me, points of visual interest. The angles and perspectives of architectural features, when looked at on their own and viewed without the context of the wider urban environment, become simply lines, shapes and patterns and can be seen as works of abstract art.
Those lines and shapes are reflected in the design of murals on the walls of the Elysium artists’ studios but opposite this is an apparent anomaly – Continue reading→
My walk this week takes a look at and listen to a small urban triangle in Swansea, South Wales. I had been looked at the patterns of tower block scaffolding on a number of occasions in passing and thought it would be good to find the opportunity to take a closer look. So, duly prepared with my kit on a dry day I set out to explore both the scaffolding and other features of a small area that includes both the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery and on the opposite side of the road, UWTSD Swansea College of Art.
There are three different eras of architectural design in this first stage (or side of the triangle) of my walk – the classical style of the Glynn Vivian and the College of Art, the more functional style of the early ’70s in the Oldway House tower block and the mixture of block and glass in the new entrance to the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery.Continue reading→
As we came out of the Great Glass House at the National Botanic Garden of Wales on my walk this week, I looked at the impending weather and took a couple of shots. I had noticed the family in the middle ground but only realised the symmetry of the children running away from each other as part of a game after I had taken the photo.
Those dark clouds did catch up with us but not at this point in our walk when I was still interested in the growth andContinue reading→
