Friday 17 May 2013

Environmental Photographer of the Year comes to Grizedale Forest - 25th May - 1st September 2013

Grizedale Forest is to play host to Environmental Photographer of the Year 2013 .
The prestigious photography exhibition includes more than 80 extraordinary images and videos that highlight current environmental and social issues from across the planet.
Touring outside of London for the first time, it will be on display at Grizedale Forest between 25 May and 1 September. The exhibition brings together work by international artists and photographers.
Since its inception in 2007, the awards, organised by the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM), has used the power of stunning imagery to highlight the plight of the land and people to global audiences.
                                           Image: Model Housing by Steve Brockett

Hayley Skipper, Curator of Arts Development for the Forestry Commission, said:

It is fantastic for us to have this amazing exhibition visiting Grizedale Forest this summer.The exhibition brings together some of the most mind-blowing images from all the far corners of the planet and I’m confident the exhibition will be wildly popular with visitors to Grizedale Forest.”

On tour for the first time, the exhibition was on display in London from 9 April at the Royal Geographical Society, before moving to Grizedale Forest.
The exhibition will be displayed across the Grizedale Visitor Centre and will be free, although parking charges still apply as normal.
The exhibition is sponsored by CIWEM and Atkins
If photography is your thing, why not incorporate a visit to the Alchemist's Workshop, situated on site here at Grizedale Forest. See some amazing prints, talk to Steven himself about his photographic work, and get involved with his workshops and events.
Please follow @EPOTY and @grizedaleantony on Twitter for more information.

Wednesday 24 April 2013

Picnic Cinema back for 2013

Picnic Cinema with Eden Arts

Deep in the forests of the North of England this summer after dark, the tranquillity may be broken by blood curdling screams. Picnic Cinema is bringing their big outdoor cinema screen, band of quirky usherettes and strange projectionists to a forest near you. Prepare for a summer filled with fantastic forest films kicking off with Whinlatter Forest.

Saturday 25th May- Shallow Grave, Danny Boyle (18) Whinlatter Forest, nr Keswick, Cumbria

Saturday 8th June - Shallow Grave, Danny Boyle (18) Dalby Forest, nr Pickering, N.Yorkshire - CAMPOVER






SIGN UP HERE to be the first to find out about film releases and other Picnic Cinema events

After the huge success of Picnic Cinema in 2012, Forestry Commission England is very excited to be working with Eden Arts again on this summers Picnic Cinema programme.

Forest Dates

Saturday 25th May - Shallow Grave, Danny Boyle (18) Whinlatter Forest, nr Keswick, Cumbria

Saturday 8th June - Shallow Grave, Danny Boyle (18) Dalby Forest, nr Pickering, N.Yorkshire - CAMPOVER

Saturday 20th July - Hamsterley Forest, nr. Bishop Auckland, Country Durham - CAMPOVER

Saturday 10th August - Grizedale Forest, nr. Hawkshead, Cumbria - CAMPOVER

Saturday 17th August - Dalby Forest, nr. Pickering, N.Yorkshire

Saturday 24th August - Gisburn Forest, nr.Clitheroe Lancashire- CAMPOVER (TBC)




Grizedale Sculpture

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Award Winning Artists at Grizedale Forest

We launch this season with two new works by award winning artists Lucy Tomlins, Owen Bullet and Rupert Ackroyd.


Concrete Country by Lucy Tomlins was the winner of the 13th annual Battersea Park Sculpture Award. The concrete representation of a typical country stile has been sited on the popular Grizedale Tarn walking trail in a beautiful area of thinned larch trees which flood with light. Sited next to a natural crossing point through a shallow beck, the viewer can consider the parallels of crossing the water and the oversized stile. 


The stile, an iconic symbol of the English landscape, alludes to the feelings of freedom gained from walking surrounding by nature and speaks of journeys, transition and movement. This, juxtaposed with the industrial materials more readily associated with the city, hopefully reflects our interconnected relationship with both these environments as we navigate our lives between the two.”


Romeo – a collaborative work by Owen Bullet and Rupert Ackroyd is a carved oak totem style sculpture which was inspired by the story of Romeo, an urban fox who explored the famous Shard tower in London, Europe’s tallest building. The work is sited in a spectacular position on the Grizedale Tarn Trail as the forest road rises through the trees, positioned against the backdrop of the distant fells.


Owen and Rupert have also both graduated from the Royal College of Art. Both have had their work exhibited at London’s Marsden Woo. Owen, whose Force Field exhibition was a sell out, has been awarded the 2012 ING Discerning Eye Art Prize.


For more information on the work at Grizedale, follow @grizedaleantony, or visit our website at www.grizedalesculpture.org where you can sign up for our E-newsletter.


Friday 12 April 2013

New Sculptural Interpretation Display in the Yan

We have just opened a display for the Yan space which focuses on clear and concise information on arts and sculpture programme here at Grizedale Forest. You can find information on the pieces within the forest, as well as more about past sculptors who have resided at Grizedale. There is information about what is currently on and what events are coming in the future, as well as more on our social media and digital presence on Big Art Mob. We have video footage regarding out Art Roots commissioning project, as well as some space for your valuable feedback. We are really excited to be able to present this information to visitors and cannot wait to hear what you think about the programme at Grizedale.

The space is designed so we can add and take out information easily, as well as build on content and display. We have more in store for the next few weeks, including a window display.
Enjoy learning more about the work here – we look forward to hearing you comments!

Wednesday 10 April 2013

The Story of the Dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides)

 On the site of the library of the demolished Grizedale House stands a dawn redwood tree.  As a tree it is interesting for its perfectly conical shape and for being a conifer which drops its needles in autumn, the only other species in Grizedale being larch.  As a species, the dawn redwood has a deeply interesting story.  Thought to have been extinct for over 5 million years, the discovery of living specimens in China meant finding a species thought to be lost from the world forever.  Yet, today the dawn redwood is ‘critically endangered’ according to the IUCN red list and humans may well condemn it to the fate we were so happy to find it had escaped.

Discovering the dead
At the start of the 1940s the dawn redwood was a species of a genus (1 level of classification more broad than species) well known based on many fossilised specimens in North America.  The oldest fossil was around 100 million years old and the most recent specimen around 5 million years old.  There was no record of the genus, Metasequoia which included four species, having survived past 5 million years B.C. so, naturally, it was thought to be extinct.  However, in 1946 a group of trees deep in a Chinese forest was identified as belonging to the Metasequoia genus, a great surprise (having been discovered but not identified two years earlier).  The species was named and another expedition was carried out in 1947 to collect seeds and cuttings to be dispersed around the world.  In 1948 these seeds and cuttings were sent throughout North America and Europe as scientists waited to see where, if anywhere, the species would grow outside of its native range.  The species grew well in wet conditions, such as those found in Grizedale and, as such we are happy to host this amazing species.

New threats:
The disappearance of the dawn redwood from North America and its confinement to a small patch of forest in China was, most likely, caused by slow climatic changes.  Today though, the species is threatened by the actions of humans.  The wet conditions which suit the dawn redwood also suit rice cultivation resulting in an island of just 5,000 trees surrounded by a sea of rice plantations.  Historically logging has reduced the population though today it is illegal to fell, or even cut off the branch of a Dawn redwood tree.  Seed collectors now attempt to meet the demand for seedlings and, as such, natural regeneration is not occurring.  Scientists were happy to be proved wrong when a genus they had consigned to extinction proved them wrong.  They would be even happier if they could be proved wrong again with their designation of ‘critically endangered’ status and pessimistic predictions for the species.

What we can do:
In general, the biggest threat to tree species is illegal logging.  It’s the threat which reduced the Dawn redwood to its current, precarious position.  As individuals we don’t need to be scared of buying timber.  We just need to ensure that we buy sustainable timber, timber produced without threatening the survival of any species.  The easiest way to do this is to look for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) logo (at the bottom of this blog) or for CSA, PEFC or SFI certification if the timber has come from North America or Canada (click here for more information).  At the forestry Commission all of the wood we produce is FSC and PEFC certified making us the largest supplied of certified round timber in the UK.
















For more information about the story of the dawn redwood you can check out:

The Alchemist's Worshop, a photography treasure trove

The Alchemist’s Workshop at Grizedale is a black and white photography treasure trove.  Adorned with prints, of various sizes, of Steven’s analogue (film) photographs, the old school cameras used to capture the images and a range of specialist photography books and magazines, the gallery is an interesting and relaxing place to browse whatever your interest in photography.  Steven also has a darkroom which is available for use for members of the public or for those attending one of his courses and  there are lovingly restored Olympus Trip cameras (which he refers to as his ‘restyled beauties') for sale or hire.  Perhaps the best feature of the whole workshop is Steven himself.  Extremely knowledgeable, Steven also enjoys what he does and enjoys sharing that enthusiasm with others, whatever their knowledge/expertise of photography.  So next time you're in Grizedale drop in for a chat with Steven and peruse his Aladdin's den of photography.



If you are interested in taking photographs in the forest then you can either rent one of Steven’s Olympus Trip cameras, buy a film and develop it yourself or sign up for one of his excellent workshops.  
Steven describes his workshops better than I could so here is a post taken from his blog:

‘If you are totally new to photography, even if you’re not serious about continuing, if you just want to play, you think it could be the start of something big, you’re a practiced film photographer, darkroom worker or you are a “dyed in the wool” digital photographer who wants to put some foundation to your knowledge, we have something for you.
All workshops are Saturday and Sunday 10am to 5 pm

4th and 5th May
Beginner’s Black and White Darkroom.
If you’ve never been in the darkroom before, or only when you were at school and you can’t remember that far back. If you would like to experience and practice “alchemy” in the 21stCentury, it really is like magic, this is for you. We’ll make photograms and some camera pictures, develop the film, make contact prints, and beautiful finished prints, all your own work to take away and show your friends that you have found the Philosopher’s Stone.
Bring your own 35mm camera if you have one but we have one for each delegate if you don’t.
£150 per person plus materials.

11th and 12th May
Darkroom Refresher (The Fine Print).
This assumes you have some experience of working in a darkroom, you might not have done it for years but you will remember that if you switch the light on without warning you will ruin everybody else’s work, or you might have your own darkroom and print everyday. We will take your printing to the next level, teasing the best from your negatives. We will talk about how to achieve better negatives as well. We will look at some rescue remedies for when the conditions or our own failings let us down and we will look at how we can make prints that are archivally stable.
£150 per person plus materials.


8th and 9th June
Black and White Landscape on Film.
The Alchemist’s Workshop is ideally situated in Grizedale Forest in the heart of The English Lake District. We are surrounded by beauty. This workshop looks at the tradition of the romantic landscape. We are all about film and black and white film at that. Monochrome workers have a long established relationship with the landscape. This workshop will explore that, theoretically, by looking at the history, but predominantly practically by getting out and doing it. We will use a range of film formats, even pinhole and, of course we will return to the darkroom to tease out our fine prints for you to take home. You can bring your own film cameras or use ours.
£150 plus materials


15th and 16th June
Olympus Trip Weekend (or Let’s Go Tripping).
The Olympus Trip is an iconic camera. Olympus made them between 1969 and 1984 and David Bailey advertised them, remember?

We have a stock, ever changing, of refurbished, guaranteed, restyled beauties. They are for sale but you can come and play. Spend a weekend with us, we will lead you and allow you to experiment. We will develop and print the results in the darkroom. You can take your Trip back to your accommodation on the Saturday evening. You’ll probably want to keep it as well, but even if you don’t, you’ll have a portfolio of pictures to take home from your “Trip”.
£150 plus materials


29th and 30th June
Advanced Fine Printing.
This workshop assumes you’ve done a bit of printing already, maybe you did the Beginner’s Darkroom and/or The darkroom refresher with us, or you’ve been printing for years. This will show you how we make prints that are finely crafted to Exhibition quality. We will explore the mystical, yet revolutionary world of “Split Grade Printing” and experiment with some different papers, developers and toners. We’ll even make our own contrast control developer. Then we’ll look at drying, spotting and mounting our work ready for the gallery wall. You won’t take away a bursting portfolio because fine printing just doesn’t work that way, we will be looking for you to achieve one truly amazing print on some really nice paper.
£150 plus materials


12th and 13th July
Beautiful Old Cameras (we can play with our collection and make pictures).
Fun and pure, unadulterated nostalgia. We are going to play with our collection of beautiful old cameras, from Box Brownies to Folders. We are going to make pictures like they used to. We will load them with the appropriate sized black and white film, make pictures, process and print them. If they let light in to the wrong places, that’s all part of the fun and the look of the image. Some of the cameras are simple, others require some careful consideration, but the look from each will be unique. It could be the start of a very special adventure.
£150 plus materials


20th and 21st July
Basic Black and White Film Photography.
This is for those who are either completely new to photography or those whose experience has all been with pixels. We have cameras but you can bring your own manual 35mm SLR if you have one. We are going to take it right back to basics, look at how cameras do what they do, how film behaves and we will carry out our own “alchemical” experiments. If you are a digital photographer, this is what it is all about… The penny will drop.
It’s certainly not theoretical though we are going to see it happening and make our own successes and failures.
£150 plus materials.


27th and 28th July
Pinhole Cameras (making and working with).
You can make a pinhole camera from just about any light tight container and we will use a few, from tiny film tubs to plastic dustbins. We will expose various light sensitive materials in all sorts of size. We will also use Ilford’s revolutionary Pinhole camera, it exposes 5x4 sheets that we can enlarge in the darkroom. At the end of this workshop not only will you take home your homemade cameras and the results of your efforts but everyone will take away an Ilford camera kit.
£219 (including price of camera) plus materials.


10th and 11th August
Old Processes (Cyanotype, Salt Printing etc.)
In the early days of photography several materials and processes were tried and tested before the silver nitrate process was made commercially available. We will experiment with some of these early processes. Everyone will have the opportunity to make some negatives using the Ilford pinhole cameras and then try out various processes to print them. Everyone can take home an alternative processing kit of his or her choice.
£250 inclusive of materials and 1 processing kit to take home.

This workshop dovetails quite nicely with the pinhole workshop, if you would like to come to both we will deduct 10% from the total.

After a short rest…

28th and 29th September
Large Format Landscape
If you have a large format camera bring it with you but we hope to have a 5x4 camera for everyone by then. It’s Large Format Landscape, we’re in Grizedale Forest so it’s not going to be architecture is it? We might try some smaller found still life studies as well but there is a strong tradition for big negatives and landscape. It’s about quality, biting sharpness and fine resolution, a well made print from a large format negative is hard to beat. The 5x4 cameras we will use are all about control, the film and lens planes are independently manoeuvrable so that we can determine not just the shape but the sharpness and depth of field in our photograph. Obviously we’ll process and print everything we make.
£150 plus materials.


So that’s the first round. If everything goes to plan they will be repeated. From September there will also be 2 evening classes of 6 x 2 hour sessions, I will announce those in a couple of weeks. I can organise a workshop for your group. There is a maximum of 5 delegates for each workshop. I am also happy to talk about 1 to 1 or 1 to 2 tuition. Please get in touch if there is something you would like to talk about.


 To book your place, there are only 5 places for each workshop, send an E mail totalk@steventaylorphotography.co.uk or telephone 01229 860588 between 10am and 4pm. Please tell us your name, address, telephone and E mail address and which workshops you would like to attend. If there are places available we will need a deposit of £50 to secure your place. The balance of the workshop fee will be due one week before the workshop date.’



Steven has been a professional photographer for 37 years and throughout maintained a fine art practice using black and white film and darkroom processes. He has an MA in fine art photography and has taught fine art, documentary and darkroom photography at all levels up to degree and professional level. He is a knowledgeable teacher and imparts an infectious enthusiasm for the craft.


Email: talk@steventaylorphotography.co.uk
Twitter: @taylorphoto
01229 860588

Tuesday 12 March 2013

The Alchemist in Grizedale

'Sometimes, when all you have before you are reflected, transmotted and absorbed light, some raw materials and instruments and what we produce is an object of beauty, then it feels a little like 21st Century alchemy in practice'

The Alchemist's Workshop is a gallery of silver gelatine photographic prints by fine art photographer Steven Taylor. It is also a workshop facility for the teaching of black and white film photography. Set in the idyllic surroundings of Grizedale Forest, the landscape provides inspiration for the artist and the students that visit'.

A programme of events, workshops and classes will be announced on here as they are organised. The gallery is open 7 days a week from 10am-4pm and the dark room is also available for hire. Taylor is also happy to arrange bespoke workshops and short courses for individuals and groups of up to five people- contact details are below

Steven Taylor has been a professional photographer since 1976 and has won many awards. He has had exhibitions in the UK and abroad, as well as gaining an MA in Photography from DeMontfort University in Leicester.

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Email: talk@steventaylorphotography.co.uk
Twitter: @taylorphoto
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/TheAlchemistsWorkshopBlog: http://alchemistsworkshop.tumblr.com/Number: 01229 860588