The Ullswater Way

Fragments Of…

“Being in the mountains reignites our astonishment at the simplest transactions of the physical world”

(Macfarlane, 2003)

Working as a printmaker, my MA centres on the landscape of The Ullswater Way, a 20 mile circular walk within The Lake District National Park. Initially inspired by Edmund Burke’s, 1757, Enquiry into the Origins of the Beautiful and the Sublime, I wish to convey the emotions that I feel when stood before the large expanse of a mountainous landscape and connect with its ability to reset our perspectives. Through the exploration of the area, experiencing the environment in detail and considering a view over and over again, I hope to interpret and suggest, the evoked response that I feel, when immersed in the elements of the place. 

Walking The Ullswater Way, in fragments, over a 2 year period, then as a whole, piecing together the journey through annotated sketching, photography and film. Experiencing the elements of the landscape through sound and sight, I hope that traces of my emotions are incorporated and conveyed in my prints. The etching prints are made of a series of images, each image is a ‘fragment’ which enables the viewer to see the vista in its totality.  This holistic approach, seeks to instigate in the viewer, a loss of self as they are subsumed by a larger, more universal picture: each element of the landscape helping us to understand our relative insignificance.  My abstracted interpretation of the topography, aspires to provide a discourse and a connection with the viewer of their own personal responses. As with the strata of the landscape, my journey, both metaphorically and physically, includes layering of the vista, expressing both reaction and experience to a place.