The Book Of Vanishing Species

A short film to introduce Beatrice Forshall’s beautiful new book of stories and engravings of species presently threatened with extinction. It also helps explain why we’ve not seen Bea for the past three years – out of reach, head down, focused. She makes small edition, fugitive prints that briefly capture the disappearing life around her. Tender images of the passing world.

Filmed by Temujin Doran of Studio Canoe for Bloomsbury Publishing.

Beatrice Forshall / The Rowley Gallery

Frames of reference

An Eggardon Summer

Watercolours Liz Somerville

Eggardon Hill is an Iron Age hill fort to the north-east of Bridport in Dorset. I live on a farm half-way up it; the hill dominates the landscape behind us and in front there is a far-reaching view across Lyme Bay to Devon. My studio looks directly out on to Eggardon, the window at the back perfectly frames it. Continue reading “An Eggardon Summer”

Frames of reference

Walking Wallington

We’d just walked up the hill out of the village and were about to turn off the main road to follow the Icknield Way. I’m pointing at the fingerpost, map in hand, but with such a weird posture, as if I don’t really know which way to go at all. This was the summer I discovered sciatica and every footstep was a conscious effort. But walking was so much better than sitting. Continue reading “Walking Wallington”

Frames of reference

A Summer Walk In Epping Forest (3)

There are some great old oak trees at Hollow Pond. Here’s one with a cave in its roots, just fit to crawl into. In my dreams. It was the last day of July and we were on a walk down memory lane. In the early 1980s Sue had an Acme house (Acme Housing Association helped artists find short-life living and studio space in what were essentially licensed squats) on Fillebrook Road in Leytonstone, now under the M11 link road. Continue reading “A Summer Walk In Epping Forest (3)”

Frames of reference

Lay All Your Love On Me

Caroline Shaw & Sō Percussion perform ABBA’s “Lay All Your Love on Me,” from their album, ‘Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part’.

Adam Sliwinski’s marimba duet with Shaw is an interpretation of the ABBA song “Lay All Your Love on Me.” She explains, “It’s really a Bach chorale. Also, the idea of someone singing ‘Don’t go wasting your emotion / Lay all your love on me / Don’t go sharing your devotion / Lay all your love on me,’ over and over again very slowly, there’s a certain tragedy in it. And then Adam did some absolutely exquisite layering that built this stunning world from the marimba.”

Frames of reference

A Summer Walk In Epping Forest (2)

It was a Monday morning in June and we were at Butler’s Retreat for a spicy shakshuka breakfast. It’s my favourite and always a great way to set you up for a good walk. But sadly it was off the menu so we settled for the much more prosaic scrambled eggs on toast. Rambled legs on toes. Continue reading “A Summer Walk In Epping Forest (2)”

Frames of reference

Flowers From A London Garden

There’s a new exhibition in The Rowley Gallery window – eighteen freshly picked watercolours from Fanny Shorter’s garden. She dressed the window with her Mill Oak fabric and Margo wallpaper and arranged her flowers in what is now The Rowley Gallery garden. And she also wrote a blogpost… Continue reading “Flowers From A London Garden”

Frames of reference

A Summer Walk In Epping Forest (1)

We began on Golding’s Hill, at Broadstrood car park, where we met a man and a woman with a dog and a parrot. They were celebrating the parrot’s first birthday by taking it for a walk in the forest, in a transparent backpack with good views of the trees. We wished it many happy returns, then stretched our wings and flew off down the hill, along Green Ride. Continue reading “A Summer Walk In Epping Forest (1)”

Frames of reference