Anatomy of the Landscape Workshop

I've been privileged to have worked with Shottle Art Group these last two weeks as part of my Fleet Arts / Derwent Wise Project Anatomy of the Landscape. 

'In September 2013 the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) gave the go ahead for the Lower Derwent Valley Landscape Partnership – DerwentWISE.

This £2.5 million five year project aims to inspire people to learn about and take care of the landscape of the Lower Derwent Valley.

The framework of the DerwentWISE Landscape Partnership Scheme is formed on the Lower Derwent Valley Landscape Conservation Action Plan (LCAP).  This is an all embracing document which analyses the landscape, assesses the problems and makes a case for investing in an area which we all know as very special indeed.

The Partnership is led by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust and includes Natural England; Derbyshire County Council; English Heritage; National Stone Centre; Fleet Arts; The Arkwright Society; Environment Agency; Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site Partnership; Derbyshire Dales District Council; Forestry Commission; Derby City Council; Amber Valley CVS; University of Derby and Amber Valley Borough Council; supported by the National Farmers Union.

In total the Scheme is delivering over 60 projects which fall into the four HLF themes:

Conserving and restoring features of natural and cultural historic importance within the landscape

Increasing community participation in local heritage in the area

Increasing access to and learning about the landscape and its heritage

Increasing training opportunities in traditional heritage skills'

The first week we visited the National Stone Centre and sketched and learnt about the geology of the lower Derwent Valley and in between sessions I encouraged the group to find out more and work up those sketches in any way they felt comfortable and last night we met again and worked on the final pieces as you can see from the images below the outcomes are going to be amazing the thought each artist has given to this project is wonderful to see as the aim was to learn about and appreciate the local landscape and these artists certainly have done that. 

I loved the fact that we have collage, printing abstracts and representational work and all individual which is something I strongly encourage in my workshops nothing worse than a room full of the same thing we are all different!

Shottle Art group have an exhibition at Hazlewood St Johns Church in July please visit if you can.