Lee Bay, Devon

Bay. Rocky. Secret.

Tide. Salt and rain.

There are children playing, waves crashing, rocks falling, a guitar playing. Yet, in my heart and my head it's still, quiet.

It's beautiful here.

Exmoor

1. http://www.nationalparks.gov.uk 2. The Beacon, James Hudson 3. Beautiful Exmoor, Helen Dixon 4. Lee Abbey Woods, Hannah Harding 5. Unknown

As I mentioned in my last post, I spent last week on the north coast of Devon, for Young Life Camp. I've always loved Exmoor, since first stepping foot there when I was eight years old, and I know it's beautiful, always. And it was again. Nothing's ever inspired me more than that place. I just want to tumble down those moors and hills forever. I just want the world to be like this.

Of Monsters and Men

This week a little video inspiration. Of Monsters and Men (great name, great name) are an Icelandic band I heard on the radio a few months ago, and was instantly hooked. Their album, My Head is an Animal (mine too!) is out at the end of the month. 

And how visually stunning is this video, created by WeWereMonkeys, follow the link through for a short journal on how they made it. 

This is like two bursts of inspiration, in one. 

Sketchbook II

More pages from the recent sketchbook. At the top we have the ceiling of the chapel in Hampton Court. Halfway down is Hampton Court again, a bit of a collage I started but got board of. I love collage, when other people do it, I just don't have the patience myself. 

The Stars Above

For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream. 

Vincent Van Gogh

1. Stars in Scorpius, NASA 2. Unknown 3. NGC 1333, a cloud in Pegasus, NASA 4. Spitzer's Orion NASA, JPL-Caltech, J. Stauffer  5. Stargazing, by Hannah Harding

The LORD wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.

Psalm 104: 2-3

I've been learning the stars and constellations for a couple of years now, I don't know a lot but I know more than you (unless you're a scientist or something, oh hey!) They fascinate me; the way if you lie on your back and stare up at them for long enough you lose sense of gravity and feel like you're falling through them. At first they're just like a mass of shining spots, but after a while they become familiar faces; Orion, Cassiopeia, Ursus Major, Pegasus, the Winter Triangle... are like old friends to me now, I love it when I see them in the sky. There's so many questions I have, and most of them are totally unanswerable, but stars remind me to consider new possibilities, and to keep looking up.

P.S We're currently having the biggest meteor shower of the year, so if you're out after dark keep your gaze fixed starward.

Sketchbook

These are just some pages from a sketchbook I've just finished. They're nothing special, just scribbles and scratches of things I've seen and thought. The second picture is of the red kites who nested in our field this year; they raised a baby, who is already as big as them. One day I hope to tame one. 

The Sea

1. Unknown 2. A Storm is Brewing by Trond Stromme 3.Humpback Whale Calf I, Bryant Austen 4. Aniva Lighthouse, Sakahlin by Unknown 5.Unknown

Thus far, I have only posted my own work on this blog, but that's about to change a little. Why? Because this is a blog, not a portfolio; my personal corner of the internet to be myself in. These posts will be quite simple, they're things that inspire me.

To begin, the sea. But not the blue waters and white sand people seek for holiday destinations. The sea that fascinates me is the dark waters, stormy and unpredictable, the tide that can't be tamed. The sea that writes its own stories of tragic romance and doomed adventure. Dangerously beautiful. And so full of life.