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Artist-in-Residence December/January Journal

Walking on the estate during winter, although limited as everyone by some seriously inclement weather, the predominant focus for my photography has been exploring light and shadow as well as continuing to document mushrooms and lichens.  Another ongoing interest is the way in which children interact with a natural environment, and how today we often think of ourselves as outside nature and needing to be absent in order for it to flourish.  Writer, landscape architect and photographer Anne Whiston Spirrin raises some interesting questions to do with our relationship with the natural world:

"Is nature sacred or profane? Can tradition and innovation be reconciled? Should landscape be shaped as art or as sustaining habitat? The answer to these questions is yes, and yes and yes ... what is the use of beautiful gardens if the larger landscape is degraded?"  *

Staying out of the cold I also worked on a collection of pencil studies, mainly lichen covered branches which have fallen onto the pathways. Lichen is not a parasite, but the result of an extraordinary symbiotic (mutually beneficial) relationship between a fungus and a type of Algae.  There are over 20,000 species of lichen, and it can be used as a dye, in perfume and traditional medicine.  It makes a great indicator of air quality whilst also absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere.  Despite its sensitivity to pollution, it has a hardy nature and can survive extraordinary extremes - even cosmic radiation.  Nature is not so easily beaten.

To see more work please visit www.axisweb.org/artist/shelleycastle

* From Language of Landscape by Anne Whiston-Spirrin (p244)