A sense of place

Some places truly strike a cord.

These are places that preoccupy you for many days after your visit. 

The place you really cannot wait to get back to. It may be down the road, a field where you regularly walk, or across the other side of the world, a beach or a street or a bay.

Whittenham Clumps in Oxfordshire is one of my places. 

I walked past this spot  in July 2103 with two friends as we walked the Thames Path. I immediately created a linocut from the drawing I made at that time.

2013 Whittenham Clumps in Oxfordshire, one of my places.

It has been at the back of my mind since as a magic place, there, but not quite.

Last Friday with my cousin Wendy and Rosie the Puppy we to the summit of Round Hill and then across to Castle Hill its sister, both comprise the Clumps.

An on the spot quick sketch. 

Just enough information to develop into a painting.

Remarkable views, you look across Oxfordshire to the north, Chilterns to the East, South and West across the Berkshire Downs and Wiltshire.

The artist Paul Nash, who first saw them in 1911, described the view from The Clumps: "a beautiful legendary country haunted by old gods long forgotten"

This place has been the site being occupied since the Bronze Age around 1000 BC.

Paul Nash repeatedly painted Wittenham Clumps. I hope to follow in his wake, in a more industrious fashion than I have hitherto.