 Photo
taken on
May 7th
2006, by a lane near Higher Metcombe Farm, close to the hamlet of
Patsford
on the
Fullabrook Wind Farm Site
|
Christine
Lovelock
|
Paintings and Photographs |
 Under
the trees,
Castle Hill, Great Torrington |
I
live in
Barnstaple, North Devon and I paint landscapes in pastel,
acrylic, oil and (rarely) watercolor. My paintings all grow out of
walks that I take in the countryside, which is why so many of them have
paths winding into the picture. I am very interested in the texture of
grasses and leaves, water and sky. I want my paintings to feel real, so
that you can imagine walking into them, feeling the earth beneath your
feet as you do so. |
 Marleycombe
Down,
Bowerchalke |
My paintings are also about places that mean something to me. This is Marleycombe Down, in Bowerchalke, Wiltshire, my most favourite hill of all. When I worked for my father, James Lovelock, in the 1970`s I used to walk over Marleycombe with him most days, and he would talk about the idea he had that the Earth was a self-regulating system (Gaia). As a family we have always cared about the environment, and I like to think of myself as a "Green Artist" - I don`t drive a car, and use public transport nearly all the time. Nearly all my trips to wind farm sites have been on foot, or by bus, coach or train. |
 With
the statue of
Gaia, in Bowerchalke, |
This is a photo of me at the time I was working in the "family business", with the statue of Gaia in the garden in Bowerchalke. The footpath in the painting "Marleycombe from the footpath" is just above the hedge. One of my jobs was to take sunphotometer readings (all to do with Global Dimming although no one called it that, then) I also helped enter chlorofluorocarbon data from the Shackleton into our (then) state of the art computer. I was an athlete in those days (running under my then married name of Curthoys) and South Western Champion at 800, 1500, 300 and Cross Country. I ran the fastest laps in the National Road Relays in 1973 and 1976, competed internationally and later (after having three children) won the World Veterans 10K Road Race Championships (Overall winner). It was great competing, but what I loved most about running were the early morning runs over Marleycombe and into the woods of Verndtch Chase. I used to see paintings in my mind that I wanted to do, and I am working on some of them now, many years later. |
 Hungry Hill, Bantry Bay
West Cork |
This painting is of Hungry Hill in Bantry Bay, West Cork, my favourite mountain. It may not be very high, but it is impressive, rising straight up from the bay. My parents bought a bungalow here in the 1960`s and it was during the long summer holidays then - when not climbing Hungry Hill - that my father started looking for industrial tracers in the haze that came from Europe. His electron capture detector was so sensitive that it discovered CFCs not only in the haze, but in the clean Atlantic air.. Eventually the bungalow became an atmospheric monitoring station, run for many years by Michael O`Sullivan, and. I carried on handling the data from it until 1986. |
 On Hungry Hill |
This is a very old photo of my father and me, up on Hungry Hill. He was taking air samples. If I remember correctly, he then flew to America with them, and there was some amusement at US Customs about containers filled with "fresh air from Ireland". Hungry Hill is a marvelous mountain to climb, made of Old Red Sandstone, the slabs of rock often at just the right angle so that you can run up them. From the summit you can see both of the adjacent peninsulas and you feel as if you are on top of the world. |
 Great
Torrington
|
This
is the view from Mill
Street In Great Torrington, another of my favourite places. I lived in
Torrington from 1986 until 1998, and walked on Castle Hill nearly every
day. The town itself is built on the hill, and surrounded mostly by
common land. It is made of the same kind of rock as Hungry Hill.
Walking down the hill in
springtime, when the air was rich with the coconut smell of gorse, I
often felt as if I was in Ireland again. |
 Barnstaple
|
This
painting is called "July,
Manning`s Pit". Manning`s Pit is the field just beside my house in
Pilton,
Barnstaple. I have done many paintings of it, and Tutshill Woods
nearby. I live on the edge of the town, so I am lucky enough to be able
to walk out into the countryside each day. The Fullabrook Down
Wind farm is over the hill in this painting. It isn`t close
enough to effect me personally, but having walked those hills, I know
that they mean as much to the people who live there as
Marleycombe, and Castle Hill and Hungry Hill.mean to me. |
| Great
Torrington, Bantry Bay, and the hills to the west of Barnstaple are
all now threatened by giant wind turbines. Only Bowerchalke is safe
from
the threat, for now. (September
4th 2008: the threat
comes closer to Bowerchalke too. I learnt today that there are 6 giant
turbines proposed at Silton, that will be higher than the nearby
hilltop town
of Shaftesbury and be visible from Cranborne Chase. As an athlete
I won the South West Counties Cross Championships when running
for North Dorset A.C., a great little club based in Shaftesbury in the
early seventies, and I used to run up into Cranborne Chase from my home
in Bowerchalke) |
More Paintings |
My personal walking and painting wind farm protest:these are just some of the paintings that I have done(since setting up this website) after visiting various wind farm sites in England, Scotland and Wales |
 Knowlwater bridge (Fullabrook Down sub-station site) North Devon |
 Church of St. Michael de Rupe, Brent Tor, near Dartmoor Devon |
 Auchencorth Moss, Penicuik near Edinburgh |
 Trees on the Tarka Trail Devon |
 Threatened Welsh valley Mid Wales (in progress) |
 Threatened Welsh valley Mid Wales in progress |
 The road to Quince Hill and Rose Ash, North Devon Two Moors Campaign area |
 May morning, North Tawton, near Dartmoor |
 Blackcraig Hill, Dumfries and Galloway Scotland |
 Across Den Brook valley, North Tawton, Devon |
 Daisies at Darracott Reservoir, Higher Darracott, Torrington, Devon |
 Morwenstow North Cornwall Crimp Turbine Site |
 Craigenputtock, home of Thomas and Jane Carlyle, Dumfries and Galloway Scotland |
 Batsworthy Cross near Exmoor, Devon |
 Yes Tor from Hatherleigh Devon |
 Sheep and lambs on Fullabrook Down Devon |
 White horse, Fullabrook Down behind |
 Looking towards the Taw from Pippacott (Fullabrook Down site) |
 Bradworthy before the turbines Mid-West Devon |
 St. Michael and All Angel`s Church, Great Torrington, from near Higher Darracott site |
 Witheridge Church near Pillivan site Two Moors Way Devon |
 St. Michael and All Angel`s Church, Marwood, Fullabrook Down Site |
 Looking towards Knowstone, from Exmoor Two Moors Campaign area |
 Hen Harrier hovering over the slopes of Blackcraig Hill Dumfries and Galloway |
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