Here is a place that turns up as a subject several times amongst The Norwich School of Painters. It’s a place steeped in interesting history. The Norfolk Archeological Trust state that “It was the only Anglo-Saxon monastery in the county which continued in use throughout the Middle Ages” and that “… the site was left undisturbed after the Dissolution because of its inaccessible location.” They have more details, art, site plans and photos on their St Benet’s Abbey page




I’ve been here about three times; two of those occasions were more memorable for disappointments. The first was a picnic plagued by flies and inquisitive cows; the second was a bitterly cold and windy day early in the year. This is one of those places that leaves me feeling great sympathy for anyone who ever had to live there. The surrounding landscape is as flat as Noel Coward said; almost the only objects above the horizon are clouds; virtually the only noticeable change of view anywhere around the ruins is which side of the Abbey you’re looking at - at least, this is how I recall it.



In short, this is the last place on earth I would choose as a subject. But look what the Norwich School could do with this ‘back of beyond’.

Remains of St Benedict's Abbey on the Norfolk Marshes - Thunderstorm clearing off 1847
Henry Bright
(1810-1873)
oil on canvas 1847
80.3 cm x 132.9 cm
Castle Museum number NWHCM : 1947.172.1 : F
© 2007 Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery

‘…As the following pages will prove, Henry Bright’s life was one of honourable distinction in his calling. He had Royalty, his brother brushes, and, if the numerous cuttings I have inspected are any criterion, the Press on his side. He was a highly successful art-master, a member of the New Society of Painters in Water-Colours, and a familiar exhibitor at the Royal Academy and British Institution. To crown all, he enjoyed the friendship of Turner. Despite all these advantages, the public passed to something fresh, but I am happy in the belief that my own efforts at restoring his laurels are taking effect, and that Henry Bright will be a name to recognise in future text-books.’

Augustus Walker

from Henry Bright of the Norwich School by Frederic Gordon Roe
(link to article currently broken - awaiting notification of repair)

A brief biography of John Sell Cotman mentions that “… in 1799 he left to work with the patron Dr Thomas Monro (1759-1833) … Cotman became a prominent member of the Sketching Club founded by Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)”

Maybe that could contain the germ of some explanation why this was such a popular subject as J.M.W. Turner, Tintern Abbey, the transept, a watercolour at the British Museum states that “From 1795 to 1798 Turner was employed by Dr Monro in the evenings to paint washes over copies of watercolours by J.R. Cozens, for which Thomas Girtin drew the outlines.”

St. Benet’s Abbey, Norfolk
John Sell Cotman (1782-1842)
watercolour on paper
1831
32 cm x 47 cm
inscription in red bottom left signed and dated ‘J.S. Cotman 1831′

And finally as you might expect, the ruined Abbey also features in local folklore as part of the legend of a ‘wyrm’…





“A fire-breathing dragon struck fear into the hearts of the Ludham residents. Upon discovering its cave they tried blocking the entrance, but the dragon merely tore away the rubble. Finally one man found a boulder that was the exact shape of the cave entrance and blocked it up whilst the dragon was out.




On finding its cave blocked the dragon moved to the vaults under the ruins of the Abbey of St Benadict.”






A very pragmatic dragon!





More dragon legends from around the UK at The British Dragon Gazetteer

These are three of my favourites that I make a beeline for when I visit Norwich Castle.










John Middleton
Lane Scene
Watercolour
32.2 - 47.6 cms
Norfolk Museums Service
Norwich Castle Museum







It may seem a strange thing to say but I have learnt so much about drawing from studying his delightful watercolours. The way he balances the elements of strong dark passages with loosely defined areas and brings his paintings into focus by using sharply defined edges sparingly.


Overlaid on this foundation, he adds suggestions of texture. He combines these elements to form paintings that give a sense of depth and light, yet surprisingly, there is very little ‘white paper’ left visible in the completed works. He avoids this becoming gloomy by using the opacity of the darker passages to contrast the translucency of the lighter tones so that the light reflecting back through the pigment glows.










John Middleton
Blofield, Norfolk 1847
Watercolour
33 - 48.2 cms
Norfolk Museums Service
Norwich Castle Museum







Middleton is often overlooked in the rush to see the major names of John Sell Cotman and John Crome from the Norwich School. There appears to be nothing about him or his life anywhere online - his name turns up in connection with The Norwich School but apart from the few works available online there is nothing I can find, beyond the record of his tragically short lifespan 1827-1856.









John Middleton
Alby Norfolk 1847
Watercolour
31.7 - 48.2 cms
Norfolk Museums Service
Norwich Castle Museum









The pictures all link to an online collection of his works. The images above are inexpert scans made from my postcards; the scanning has added a red cast to the images which is strictly inaccurate. Copyright information is not included on the cards but probably belongs to Norwich Castle Museum or the Norfolk Museums Service.

Bluebells was recently featured at CafePhilos when Paul’s comment reminded me about drawing this piece.





‘I’m very attracted to this work for its wonderful description of sunlight, which the artist has made almost tangible. It is also a beautifully balanced composition, and the only thing I can discern missing from the work is a nude or two romping towards us through the flowers. Of course, I firmly believe all art should have a romping nude or two somewhere in the composition, so my opinion on that might not be quite so rational as I could wish.’






The trunks and branches of trees have often seemed to have a vaguely human shape to me, with their boughs reaching skyward. The photo I worked this piece from had very strong resemblances to human forms in the two most prominent trees, emphasised by the strong light. I made definite efforts to soften this resemblance whilst I was drawing although I still recognise them as being there. It’s never occurred to me to wonder whether they are clothed though.





I’ve read or heard that the subconscious notices everything whether the conscious brain brings that into awareness or not - as that’s how subliminal advertising works, it seems an accurate statement. A technique to stimulate creativity known during the renaissance was recorded in two major records from the time.









Leonardo da Vinci
Young Woman (so-called pointing Lady)
c1516
The Royal Collection
© 2005, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II













A WAY OF DEVELOPING AND AROUSING THE MIND TO VARIOUS INVENTIONS.




I cannot forbear to mention among these precepts a new device for study which, although it may seem but trivial and almost ludicrous, is nevertheless extremely useful in arousing the mind to various inventions. And this is, when you look at a wall spotted with stains, or with a mixture of stones, if you have to devise some scene, you may discover a resemblance to various landscapes, beautified with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, plains, wide valleys and hills in varied arrangement; or again you may see battles and figures in action; or strange faces and costumes, and an endless variety of objects, which you could reduce to complete and well drawn forms. And these appear on such walls confusedly, like the sound of bells in whose jangle you may find any name or word you choose to imagine.






The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci
Volume 1


Trans by Jean Paul Richter 1888









Piero di Cosimo
Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci
c. 1480
Oil on panel
57 x 42 cm
Musée Condé, Chantilly, France




















‘… He would sometimes stop to contemplate a wall at which sick people had for ages been aiming their spittle, and there he descried battles between horsemen, and the most fantastic cities, and the most extensive landscapes ever seen: and he experienced the same with the clouds in the sky.’





referring to Piero Rosselli,
known as Piero di Cosimo
Vasari, 1568


‘The Penguin Book of Art Writing’ p446
ed Martin Gayford & Karen Wright
ISBN 0 140 25451 X

Basho Haiku





The leafless cherry,
Old as a toothless woman,
Blooms in flowers,
Mindful of its youth.














Pleasure Outing at Mukôjima to View Cherry Blossoms









































Japanese
Edo period
1781–1801 (late Tenmei to early Kansei era)
Hanging scroll; ink, color, gold, and mica on silk
Image: 66.2 x 122 cm (26 1/16 x 48 1/16 in.)
Overall: 205 x 151 cm (80 11/16 x 59 7/16 in.)
© 2009 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Record of Stone Bell Mountain

by Su Shi








Li Pei, Landscape; Qing to Republic Period.










The Water Classic says: At the mouth of [Lake] Pengli there is a Stone Bell Mountain.





Li [Dao] yuan held that ‘below it, near a deep pool, faint breezes drum up waves, and water and rocks striking one another toll like huge bells.’ Others have often doubted this claim. Today, if one takes a bell or a lithophone and places it into the water, even if there is great wind and waves, he cannot make it ring. How much the less, then, for [common] rocks?





It was not until the time of Li Bo [fl. early 9th century] of the Tang that someone searched for a surviving trace of the phenomenon. Upon finding a pair of rocks by the bank of a pool, he ‘knocked them together and listened. Their southern tone was mellow and muted; their northern timbre was clear and shrill. When the clang ceased, its resonance mounted; the remnant notes then gradually came to rest.’ Li Bo then held that he had found the ’stone bells.





I am, however, especially doubtful of this claim. The clanking sounds made by rocks is the same everywhere. And yet, this place alone is named after a bell. Why, indeed, is that?





On Dingchou day of the sixth lunar month in the seventh year of the Prime Abundance [Yuanfeng] period (14 July 1084), I was traveling by boat from Qi’an to Linru. My oldest son [Su] Mai was just about to leave for Dexing [township] in Rao [county] to take up the post of Pacificator (wei). Since I accompanied him as far as Hukou, I was able to observe the so-called stone bells. A monk from a [nearby] monastery dispatched an apprentice, who carried an ax, to select one or two of the scatttered rocks and knock them [with the ax], upon which they would make a ‘gong-gong’-like sound. I laughed just as I had done before, still not believing the legend.





That evening, the moon was bright. Alone with Mai, I rode a little boat to the base of a steep precipice. The huge rocks on our flank stood a thousand chi high. They looked like fierce beasts and weird goblins, lurking in a ghastly manner and getting ready to attack us. When the roosting falcons on the mountain heard our voices they, too, flew off in fright, cawing and crying in the cloudy empyrean. Further, there was something [that sounded] like an old man coughing and laughing in a mountain ravine. Someone said: ‘That is a white stork,’ I was shaking with fear and about to turn back, when out from the surface of the water rang a loud noise that gonged and bonged like bells and drums unceasing in their clamor. The boatman became greatly alarmed.





I carefully investigated it, only to discover that everywhere below the mountain were rocky caves and fissures, who knows how deep. Gentle waves were pouring into them, and their shaking and seething and chopping and knocking, were making this gonging and bonging. When our boat on its return reached a point between the two mountains, and we were about to enter the mouth of the inlet, [I saw that] in the middle of the channel was a huge rock that could seat a hundred people. It was hollow in the center with numerous apertures, which, as they swallowed and spat with the wind and water, made a bumping and thumping and clashing and bashing that echoed with the earlier gonging and bonging. It seemed as if music were being played. Thereupon, I laughed and said to Mai: ‘Do you recognize it? The gonging and bonging are the Wuyi bells of King Jing of Zhou; the bumping and thumping and clashing and bashing are the song-bells of Wei Zhuangzi. The ancients have not cheated us!’





Is it acceptable for someone who has not personally seen or heard something to have decided views on whether or not it exists? Li [Dao] yuan probably saw and heard the same things I did, yet he did not describe them in detail. Gentlemen-officials have always been unwilling to take a small boat and moor it beneath the steep precipice at night. Thus, none was able to find out [about the bells]. And, although the fishermen and boatmen knew about them, they were unable to describe them [in writing]. This is the reason that [such a record] has not been passed down through the generations. As it turns out, imbeciles sought the answer by using axes to beat and strike the rocks. Then they held they had found out the truth of the matter. Because of this I have made a record of these events, for the most part to sigh over Li [Dao] yuan’s naivete and to laugh at Li Bo’s shallowness.








Trans. James M Hargett,
On the Road in Twelfth Century China, pp. 46–47

About the painting, extracts from the page…



Chinese-painting-pre 1930-item #1006
Painting, ink on paper. Mountains and rivers landscape with pavilions. Entitled, inscribed and signed, with two seals of the artist; 1920 to1930
80.5 x 36 cm (31.7 x 14.1 inches).