18/10/2014 0 Comments Dorset picture 7: On a walk... in EypeAnother series of pictures to set the scene for my third book, The Right Place. All those pictures were taken in September 2014, we had two weeks of fabulous weather down in Dorset! It was ideal to explore the area further and think about how I was going to use the landscape in my book... Any wonder I find this place so inspiring? This is one of my favourite spot: just out of Bridport, but almost nobody around... Eype is a gorgeous place (PJ Harvey recorded her Mercury-prize winning album Let's England Shake in the church there - it is usually an art gallery. To give a reading there would be one very special event... Maybe one day!) Tomorrow, music blog! All pictures (c) Matt ArtPix
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17/10/2014 0 Comments Urthona at Chalkwell HallUrthona's short but intense set at Chalkwell Hall last Saturday was part of Metal's Feelgood Cafe exhibition/series of events curated by Colette Bailey (Metal's managing director), Simon Poulter (UK artist and curator) and Justin Hopper (US writer and curator) - it runs until 12th December 2014. This gig was perfect as it corresponded with me concluding my work on The Book of Thoth and beginning a new page - literally - with The Right Place, a novel set in Dorset and heavily inspired by and rooted in its landscape and history. Urthona belongs to its very own genre, Heavy Rural. Sounds good to me! (the name of the project comes from William Blake's mythological writings). Instead of focussing on portraying the countryside as something a bit twee populated by blond people who look like they've just escaped from a hipster-approved pseudo-folk video, Urthona's music expresses the dark side, the mystery and the fury of the natural world and passes on the echoes of the ancient civilisations that once populated our land. We hear it all in the saturated guitar, the alien electronic sounds and the plaintive sounds of the flute and pipes. It's all here: the extreme weather, the furious waves, the howling winds, the rushing, flowing water of the rivers, the bubbling lava burrowed deep underneath the surface, the brooding moors where you can easily lose your sense of direction. It's an uncompromising landscape thankfully deprived of any human presence; this is music that listens to the memory of our ancient past etched onto the natural environment; it reveres the spirit of the earth. Behind the three musicians (Neil Mortimer on guitar, Mark Pilkington - editor of Strange Attractor - on analogue electronics, Michael J York on flute and pipes), we are treated to projections showing proud dolmens and ancient stones, foggy moors and trees with their bark all cracked by the passing centuries but still refusing to give up. Wonderfully atmospheric and evocative. Unfortunately, the light was very low and therefore my pictures are not exactly very good... 15/10/2014 0 Comments Dorset picture 6: Brownsea IslandWhy do people go to exotic resorts? Look at those pictures! AND... We DID see quite a few red squirrels, but they were too quick to get any picture of them!
Are you bored with pictures of Dorset? Then there should be a short live music report on here by tomorrow evening... And another one this weekend! All pictures (c) Matt ArtPix There are numerous fascinating places in Dorset, and the area around Mapperton is one of them. This is Dead Man's Lane, which was used to transport the dead from Mapperton to the bigger village of Netherbury for burial. When the plague struck Mapperton - noone is sure whether it was during the 14th century plague or the one that struck in the 16th century - the villagers of Netherbury blocked the way so the plague victims didn't get buried in their village - for fear of infection. Therefore the deceased were buried in a pit dug on South Warren Hill between the two villages. You can still see the cobbles from all those centuries ago. It's a very atmospheric path! All pictures (c) Matt ArtPix
13/10/2014 0 Comments Anger is an energy...To celebrate the release of John Lydon's autobiography "Anger is an energy", here's a video of Leftfield's Open Up - featuring Mr Lydon, one of my favourite tracks ever! I also love PIL. So there's also a PIL video in here! Colmer's Hill is an iconic place in Dorset. The views from the top are absolutely stunning - I have goose bumps just typing this and looking at our pictures again. It is simply magical. Colmer's Hill will of course feature in my third book, The Right Place, set in West Dorset. And I love it so much that I'm putting some more pictures below. You can see for yourself how special this place is. I adore it. All pictures (c) MattArtPix
11/10/2014 0 Comments I've bought some art...Not the originals unfortunately... This limited edition set of artworks was painted by the fabulous Joolz Denby for the new EP of the iconic band New Model Army. Black and red are my favourite colours and I was hooked on the raw, pagan, devilish and demonic aspect of the pieces. They are truly gorgeous. I am so happy with my purchase! I hope one day to commission Ms Denby for the cover of one of my books... I will resume my Dorset pictures series tomorrow!
9/10/2014 0 Comments The hellstone: Dorset picture 2On a hill above the village of Portesham, you can find a structure with a cool name: the Hellstone. It is at least 5,000 years-old and was restored in the 19th century.
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March 2024
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