17th December 2024

This morning I listened to two videos, one on the fall of the American empire, the other on the burial site/s of massed killing by the Assad regime. 

That is the bad news.  But the funny news is the F/B forum.  Disaster has struck Todmorden.  A burst sewage pipe just outside Hebden Bridge has closed the one and only main road between the two towns.  The council have no idea when it will be mended and everyone is pulling their hair out as to what to do.  The trains are still running of course, the buses are taking a longer route via Mytholmroyd.  Everyone else  in a car takes a 'diversion' down from the moors on one particular lane.  Lost cats are found, the cycle path seems to be off the menu and the flooding slight.  All's Well!

The High Bridestones

A scatter of rocks upon the North Yorkshire moors.  No one can read their message today.  Is that a circle? a pathway? or even a burial.  Forgotten stones lie all around.  I contrast it with Piper's strong line and form.

Paintings by John Piper.  I have picked five, two of stones and three of Wales.  They are stark and dramatic but for me capture the strong presence of the material 'feel' of stone.  Wales is built on rock, Jan Morris wrote once that you only had to take a square yard of Wales and you would encompass its whole history.

The following painting of Stonehenge is a long way from Turner's pale mist and of course you do not see it as you wander around it.  Pale grey stone, once lichened but somehow the striking emphasis of the stone is contrasted against a turbulent sky.  Similar to Turner and Constable, a maelstrom sky is the force in which the stones are depicted.

Stonehenge - John Piper

It's a cromlech, sketchily done and too much dark emphasis

The Rise of the River Dovey

I love this painting, the mountains rears vertical from the still, placid lake at its foot.  It reminds me of a Tibetan myth, the god was the mountain and the lake the female.

Footless Crow

Alongtimealone - John Piper

I am not quite sure why I like John Piper.  His work is dark and dramatic and in my mind there is a much softer vision of Wales that I see in its green rounded hills. But one is always aware that underneath it all the rocks hold it up and were the beginnings of a religious nature, along with the sun and moon and maybe even the stars for the Neolithic tribes that established themselves on the higher ground.

Ref: Frances Spalding, long and beautifully illustrated - John Piper, Myfanwy Piper, Lives in Art.

And as an extra just say Myfanwy several times and recognise the beautiful sound of the word.  The 'y' as the 6th vowel/consonant sometimes used.