While it’s not always been the case, I’m incredibly fortunate to have the countryside so close by, something I was very thankful for during lockdown. My daily walks became a sacred ritual…occasionally, I’d take a camera, a notebook or just go empty-handed and carefree. Within 5 minutes, I could be walking across a field, along a hedgerow or winding through the wood… Walking has always grounded me, helped me clear my mind and provided solace away from the noisy world.
It was during the first lockdown that a weekly email began arriving in my inbox from David Suff. While many of you will know David from his time co-running Topic Records and running his own Fledg’ling label, he’s best know for being an artist, an internationally acclaimed one at that, whose drawings have been exhibited around the world. In these weekly emails came a drawing and accompanying observations and thoughts from David. Like my daily walks, these colourful offerings became a constant highlight of my week.
David has collected these drawings and thoughts and presented them in a beautiful 144 page, full-colour hardback book titled “Walking on Skylark Ridge‘. Part autobiography, this collection of writing and drawings documents our relationship with the local natural world through one year. I caught up with David to talk more about the book, his drawings, walks and nature.
The book’s cover features two skylarks flying above a field with a hedgerow running down one side and the sun either setting or rising (main image above). “The walk”, David tells me “is here in Rutland, literally the nearest farm track byway to my home. Gently rolling countryside, arable farmland, quite typical of the English Midlands.”
Factors that go on around our lives can change our concept of the familiar…many people spoke of this during the lockdown; landscapes we maybe took for granted before now appeared almost magical and verdant as if our perspective had shifted. For David, it began with an ash tree…
“I had taken this particular walk many times before. Early in January 2020, before the restrictions, I noticed an extraordinary ancient ash tree in the hedgerow. Fallen, perhaps in a storm many years ago, or possibly deliberately felled along the field boundary. The huge trunk now grows laterally with roots at one end and all the branches growing vertically. I thought that it might be the subject of a few drawings.
“Each day I found that I was noticing a little more – watching all the foliage begin to sprout, watching the landscape colours change. After a few weeks, I was aware of where goldfinches or wrens might be found, which branch to expect the kestrel to be perched on.”
Although he would occasionally meet a dog walker or runner, his walks were primarily solitary. Despite this, many would soon come to share in the experience his walks. “At first, there was no plan, other than to take as much exercise in the fresh air as was permitted. After a few days, I began to draw some of the birds I’d seen. At the end of the week, I sent an e-mail with a brief description of things seen and the drawing to fellow bird lovers and friends who might be interested in the natural world. Back came some wonderful messages. The next week I sent another message and included a few more friends. Before long the e-mail went to about fifty recipients each week. Some forwarded the message to their own friends and family so I have no idea how many saw the e-mails.”
On one page, he talks of walking in the footsteps of all those who have followed the same path for generations before. But it wasn’t necessarily the sense of place that provided the magic; he also found a growing awareness of time passing through the changes he was noticing. “…there was both a strong sense of walking a route that many others would have walked before and, at the same time, a feeling that this daily walk could have been any walk. By looking, and listening, carefully, focussing on small particulars an extraordinary world was unlocked. I feel you could take a similar walk anywhere. What made it special was the daily observations so you would notice the tiniest changes.”
I did wonder if the events of lockdown maybe heightened that sensation of change for him. “As an artist, I try always to be alert and observant to the world around”, he explains. “Taking the same walk each day definitely reduced the stress of all the uncertainties of this past year. Of course, every walk is literally a journey in time and space. Changing atmospheric conditions and light activate the landscape all the while, so that time, space and distance seem to change from day to day, sometimes from minute to minute. Objects and sounds can be quite difficult to place in space as the weather changes.”
In case you are wondering, David’s walks continue…”Day 470 today”, he declares, “swallows swoop slicing the sky, almost, but not quite, brushing the ripening barley heads. Spotted the first grass snake just a few feet away. A fox across the valley sounded as though it was just behind the nearest hedge.”
The book is really quite something. It’s large enough to allow the artwork, which has been carefully reproduced, to be properly appreciated, some of which spreads across double pages. Even the textures of the different papers he used to draw on look incredibly vivid. He made a point of experimenting, using different techniques, pencils, pens and paper and was happy to talk through his process.
“Quite soon in this project, I thought it would be good to explore different drawing materials and techniques. Usually, I choose to draw on very smooth hard-sized papers like Arches of Fabriano. My ‘default’ coloured pencils are the Derwent Artists range.
“Each week for these drawings, I began to use different materials, almost whatever was to hand in my studio. There is quite a variety – Indian Khadi paper, Saunders Waterford paper from Somerset, Fontaine watercolour paper from France. Winsor and Newton, Sennelier and Isaro artists’ watercolour paints; Staedler and Pitt drawing felt tips; Karisma, Conté and various hotel pencils.
“I tried to experiment with as many ways of making marks as I could think of – precise drawing with sharpened pencil, smudging and blending with thumbs, looser drawing with broad brushes, stippling marks by bouncing felt-tip pens on the paper, etc. One drawing was made on an iPad using the Brushes app.
“Some of the images took longer than others to complete. One or two were made in a day. Some weeks it was a race to finish drawing before the weekly e-mail could be sent!”
While there is a diverse representation of nature throughout the book, the real stars of the show are the birds, from our native species to migratory visitors. As for favourites? “Goldfinches for their skittish beauty and Skylarks for their glorious song”, he tells me. “I know that it is easy to anthropomorphise but they really do seem to sing for the beauty of the music.” And the greatest highlight? “Standing just twenty feet below a hunting kestrel just before it dropped onto a field mouse.”
I’m excited both for David and for others to discover these recollections of walks through his book and ask him how he feels looking back at what he has created. “Proud that this accidental nature diary has touched so many. Grateful for the opportunity to spend time getting to know the local landscape.” As we chat more and touch on surprises, he adds “I never imagined that the daily walk could turn into such an enjoyable and consuming marathon.”
And if there was one underlying message to the reader, what might that be?
“Take time to investigate your locality. I think anyone will be handsomely repaid for taking time to observe the natural world. ‘Catch the blossom while you can it won’t be here for ever.‘”
Long-tailed Tits chase along the ridge. Blackbirds scurry. Rooks flap down from the Holly trees. A multitude of nervous Fieldfares move across the fields. As they catch the early light, shining silver-blue and glowing orange-red breasts mark the position of Dunnocks and Robins singing all along the hedgetop. Sparrows fill the Forsythia with song. Chaffinches, Blue Tits and Siskins chirping. Siskins’ tails twitch with each call. Often invisible in the low cloud, Skylarks pour down song, occasionally a tiny windmilling speck framed against a patch of blue.
The Kestrel hawks over the scrubby field edge despite the wind…
David’s writings and drawings really capture the magic of our wildlife and countryside, this is a book you will continue to return to.
Copies of “Walking on Skylark Ridge” can be ordered from here (proceeds to the RSPB):
Read more about David’s artwork here: https://www.davidsuff.com/
Visit his record label: http://fledglingrecords.co.uk/