Viewing single post of blog Shetland, 2017

Yesterday was generally bleak and blustery, and I had to make a definite effort to leave my front door.  Trying to impose a bit of self-discipline, I decided to make  drawing every 20 steps, walking widdershins around the lighthouse.  I don’t think this will have had any adverse effects on the weather. In any case, I think avoiding anticlockwise ambulation only applies to churches.

Anyway … 20 paces, stop and draw until the page is full.  And repeat.  The results are more or less what you might expect:  firstly I lasted for four drawings-worth before my fingers got too cold to hold the pen. Secondly, the attention to detail falls off exponentially with exposure to the wind.  Fortunately a lot of the lighthouse buildings resemble concrete blockhouses (left over from world war II) so a couple of straightish lines gives a general idea of what is in front of you.  The final 20 paces brought me face to face with a rainwater downpipe, after which I had to give up.  As a topographical record of a lighthouse it’s almost useless – as a record of the experience of walking 40 paces in a towering gale it’s spot on.


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