About This Project

View of the Slad Valley from below the village of Slad

What is The Valley Under the Skin project?

This blog documents my attempts as a glass artist to get 'under the skin' of the Slad Valley, in Gloucestershire, where I have been living and working since 2007.  In that time, this beautiful valley has got very thoroughly under my skin, to the extent that I now can't imagine wanting to live anywhere else.  I thought it was about time I returned the compliment.

A wildlife artist I know went off to the Falklands for a period to spend time drawing and painting the area and its wildlife and came back with enough inspiration to fuel her next year's work.  How fantastic, I thought, to have the chance  to get to know one amazing place in depth.  If only I had the money and the time....  Then it occurred to me - why go to the ends of the earth when you have an amazing place on your own doorstep?

I began the project in April 2011, aiming to 'learn' the valley from the ground up through walking, reading, drawing, photography and sound recording.  Ultimately, I hope to produce a new body of work inspired by what I have seen and learned, and to bring it all together in an exhibition.

I am a glass artist, so the work will primarily be new glass pieces, but I aim to celebrate the valley in many ways. Since words have always been as powerful as images for me, one of them will definitely be writing. Hence this blog.  It's primarily a way for me to record my progress and organise my thoughts, but if anyone else out there enjoys it, so much the better.

What this blog is not....

It is not a real-time blog.  It's a diary of my walks, based on audio notes taken while I was walking.  Life being what it is, the writing-up of my walks tends to lag well behind the actual event.  The date shown on each post, however, is the date of the walk, not the date when I finally got around to writing it up.

It is not an attempt to record the valley, its structure or its wildlife in any systematic way.  It is a record of a personal visual journey.

What I am not....

I am not a professional photographer, wildlife expert, botanist, geographer or any other kind of expert, more's the pity.  I am a glass artist.  Don't take anything you read here as gospel (e.g. species identification!) except where it relates to glass....