October half-term. A long-planned visit to Edinburgh, staying in the Community Hall of Well Court, part of Edinburgh World Heritage Dean Court. These apartments were built in 1886 as a model housing development for artisans and worker families employed by the many mills that dipped their wheels in the Water of Leith. The Water of…
Sea to the West – Blinded by Dazzle
By the mid-1970s my natural playground was the slagged cliffs and green-slimed rocks of Workington beach. There was a rent in the cliffs that let you down over the edge, sliding steeply towards a hole in the cliff face and clamber down through a cave that stank of algae and piss, out onto the coal-jewelled…
Lorna Graves’ Landscape
Discovering the art of Lorna Graves was like falling through a trapdoor into a subterranean grotto. Portals and doorways were early themes of the Cumbrian artist as she carved her artistic direction. It was a journey she described as an unveiling, and the veils were made of iron. Clare Crossman launched her memoir of Lorna,…
The Art of Getting Lost
Geltsdale is well known to outdoor enthusiasts in North Cumbria. Four way-marked trails lead walkers into the heart of this Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Its Black Grouse and wading birds attract ornithologists while scholars of industrial archaeology can be found on the quarried flanks of Cold Fell. But for Carlisle artist Laura M R…