Posts Tagged ‘beach’
Between the Earth and the sky
I took these photographs while we were at the beach in Fanore on one of the lovely sunny days we had a couple of weeks ago. I was fascinated by this idea of a person going up into the sky attached to little more than a whizzing wheel of metal some strong thread and large sleeping bag! I am not sure what exactly it is but there is something very magical about it!
Great Value and a perfect Day!- Part one
My Family Cooking mussels on the beach at Fanore
Mine might start in a tent. We have a slight addiction to buying tents, the best value one was £12 from Argos in London. I would wake up in a beautiful place on some common land beside the sea. I’d brew some coffee in a Mocha pot and enjoy it far more then when I wake up in the comfort of my own home, and having coffee. Ever since walking the Caminos (we walked the Camino de Santiago three times in total with James), morning coffees while camping have been a lovely ritual. Though Jasmine tea, hot chocolate or whatever you love to drink in the morning is a great start to the day. Next I would go for a swim or walk or do a little bit of yoga, Reiki or meditation, it is amazing they are all free! Remember to breathe and drink some natural spring water.
For breakfast for best value for me it has to be porridge or if you catch your your own mackerel that is even better, fried in a dusting of flour on the camping gas, or on an open fire make with driftwood. With some flour a pinch of salt and some water, mix into a dough for flat breads to accompany the mackerel. You could go out on the rocks when the tide is out and pick some mussels for lunch too!
The postal service is one of the best value things these is, in my opinion. Emails are great but here is nothing like getting real physical letter. I would spend the rest of the morning writing a couple of letters. Another thing that is great value, well in fact it is free is to video call on Skype to other people who use Skype. I would love to have a distant gathering of friends who cant get to see each other often enough. Or reading a library book book for hours would be good too, libraries are brilliant!
Do some land art on the beach and the rocks. Find out how to make a Camera Obscura out of a shoe box so you can take photographs without buying a camera. They have a very different quality to a normal photograph, I think they look amazing. Remember to bring a shoe box or two with you. I have not made one for years so I am a bit rusty.
Another possibility is to go kayaking, either in the sea or on a river, or like we did along the canal. Maybe go for a walk and look for a veggie garden and offer to buy some or do some barter, such as I will let you borrow our kayak for a couple of hours in return for a dinners worth of fresh vegetables! Or give an art class on the beach to them or their children, tell a story, sing a song or help them in some way. You could also travel with some of your wares such as hand make jewellery, poetry, mounted photographs, or whatever you make so that you can offer something that is often worth more then money.
There will be free art classes happening soon in the Secret Gallery, all welcome!
Beach collections
The other day, I headed to a beach near Lahinch, well it is a stony beach with driftwood and a lot of rubbish. After almost filling the boot of the car with drift wood, I decided to fill a large bag with plastic bottles and bring them to the bottle bank. It was like saying a little thank you to the beach for the driftwood. When we got home our children played with the driftwood and we have been burning it in the fire and I have kept some of the more suitable pieces for hanging some of the hand made books from and maybe to make some other things with them.
The Secret Gallery will be opening again soon, so we are getting ready, lots of tidying and painting and making small art objects for it. At the moment the theme is to create a fun and memorable ritual with an every day recycled object; creating something special out of the ordinary! Just think how much of our life we don’t remember; one day is often much like another. I would like to do little things to change that.
Interventions on the beach at Fanore
Today was a lovely day, part of it involved a journey to Fanore beach. I did something that I had not done for a while, that was go for a walk on the beach on my own with my old camera, sorry no images yet, I will have get the film processed! The sand was formed into miniature sand dunes with little islands of no dunes, in these islands I wrote words, such as: Love, unity, joy, smile, laugh and Free Tibet.
I also found the piece of silk from a Foxford blanket that had been a wedding present given to my parents. I had been carrying around in my camera case for years, taking photographs of it in different situations. The pale blue piece of silk was very fragile and had come away from the rest of the blanket. I repaired the length of silk with horses hair. It reminded me of the the white silk scarves that it is traditional for Tibetan Buddhists to give when they met someone. It also reminded me of the Tibetan prayer flags also known as Wind Horses. I took some photographs of the silk going across a large rock, in places it was a bridge and in there places it was a pale blue path. It was fun to do these playful interventions again.
The last time I did an intervention on Fanore beach was 7 years ago when I stuck bamboo leaves in the sand I had written words about the surrounding area on the leaves, then waited for the sea to come in and to see what would happen the leaves; how the words would be effected by the sea and how the leaves would be dispersed and float on the in coming waves, and I documented this. I enjoy the playful, poetic, absurdity of these interventions!
The secret gallery's blog 