Caravan as library

With no laptops, smart phones and for most of the time no electric hook up the TCG became a great space to sit, read, think, chat & day dream

https://www.facebook.com/TouringCaravanGallery

An unplanned turn West

A cool dry start to the day with cowslips in the lorry park

Sun out by 10am near Lyon

30 minutes to Valence and all the trees are greening up.

Snow on the mountains in the distance

 

 snapography

 Dravelling = driving & travelling

By the end of the day poppies near Arles as we took an unplanned turn to the West and spent the night in the Camargue

poppies near Arles

https://www.facebook.com/TouringCaravanGallery

Lorry park sleepover south of Dijon

Heading east and nudging south. 

Still not thinking in kilometres & misjudging the extra weight we were towing, plus the windy conditions we drove quietly for what seemed like forever with the orange out of diesel light shouting at us. Literally rolled into an aire just as the the van made a click that said completely empty. Luckily we were able to refuel with no damage to the van, lesson learnt was to keep filling up when half empty.

8 deer

15 magpies

hawks sky dancing

Slept with the lorries just south of Dijon - steady all night sound and rhythm of the motorway

Lemon yellow grape blue buildings

Passing through Northern France, fields saturated, turned and ploughed red brown, glistening wet.

Storm sky behind us

Pollarded tree

Everything in lines

Chalk and Tree mulch

Mining

Dry ski slope

Lemon yellow grape blue buildings

Green corrugated tin round shed 

Being dismantled

Channel crossing & Calais

Anticipating the need for a good sleep after a long day of travel and not wanting to wild camp near the docks  on a late arrival we booked ourselves into a campsite at Guines just a short drive from Calais. Not cheap but a good for a refreshing one night stop over near the ferry.

http://www.camping-la-bien-assise.com/

Woke to sound of rain with blasts of sunshine which soon changed to persistent rain. Took a huge effort to move the caravan which had got stuck in the soft damp ground. 

Quick stroll before setting off for a long day on the road .

http://fieldandhedgerow.blogspot.co.uk

Dartford Crossing

Excuse me 

Oh will you excuse me 

I'm just trying to find the bridge... Has anybody seen the bridge? 

(Have you seen the bridge?) 

I ain't seen the bridge! 

(Where's that confounded bridge?) [spoken by Robert Plant]

from The Crunge - Houses of the Holy - Led Zeppelin 

Even though singing about a musical bridge these words often come to mind when out walking and looking for that all important river crossing. Luckily the  Queen Elizabeth II bridge is easily found. Maybe Ian will add this to his collection of bridge prints one day.

http://www.ianmitchell-art.com/index.php/print-gallery/north-east

http://www.ianmitchell-art.com/index.php/card-gallery/iconic-buildings-cards

http://www.ianmitchell-art.com/indexhttp://www.ianmitchell-art.com/index.php/card-gallery/iconic-buildings-cards.php/print-gallery/north-east

Black Headed Teasels

Travelling south through England passing black headed teasels, attractive to Goldfinches and holders of motorway pollution. These blackened spiky forms looking inked up and printed into a support of nature reminded me of a field edge I often walk near home in Yorkshire bordering Bellmanear Farm where unblackended teasels form a long reach of set-aside.

Hull Traders - fabric design

Teasel Exposed Interior -Nuala O'Donovan

http://www.nualaodonovan.com

Hearld Mug with Teasels - Angie Lewin

  http://www.angielewin.co.uk/

Teasel - Karl Blossfeldt

‘Teasel’ (1949), Ellsworth Kelly

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/61a78d8c-b9ef-11e1-937b-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2RhQaFlIl

A homage to Alper

With a very small but flexible exhibition space the Touring Caravan Gallery has been the ideal way to reach a wide range of audiences in places and spaces where visual art does not always reach. 

Over the past year we have extended it’s usage to occasional workshop space and have been itching to see how it would behave as a mobile artists studio. Also sitting on our shoulders has been whole big bundle of touring ambition epitomised in the caravans designer and creator Sam Alper who to promoted the caravans ability to travel by racing it in many challenging world wide endurance trails.

Not wanting to race, but wanting to hold onto some of the ambitious travelling spirit of Alper we planned to take our little vintage Sprite on a trip that would take us to, over or past the Alps whilst using it on route as a studio space. We wanted to keep planning as minimal as possible, allowing for spontaneous decisions on route. We planned to travel with no access to the Internet, no laptops, no mobiles, no sat nav and no electric hook up.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Story-Sprite-Caravans-Andrew-Jenkinson/dp/1845843584

With this all of this in mind we set off from Yorkshire with our bedroom in our van and our studio space in our tiny Sprite on 11/04/2013

http://www.duckettandjeffreys.com/index.php/ian-mitchell/

http://www.duckettandjeffreys.com/index.php/stef-mitchell/