The South Country I : Daughter of the Soil

My friend's daughter is in the final year of a degree in fine art, and her mother sounded me out about displaying a poem alongside her work to add depth to the exhibition. Bryony - the daughter - has been making her own pigments from various types of earth and painting gorgeous squares of pure colour - literal landscapes. It all sounded intriguing, and I could think of quite a few poems off the top of my head that might fit the bill. 

'The only hitch,' I said to my friend, 'is that she'll need to sort out The Copyright Thing and that could prove Quite Expensive.' 

'Ah,' said my friend. 'She's thought of a way around that.' 

[pause] 

'She was wondering if you might write one for her?' 

'And could you get some local references in to where the soil comes from?' 

To which the answers were yes, and yes, but I'll need to get down there for a day because I'm not very good at writing about places I'm not very familiar with. 

And the answer to that was ... Road Trip!

First stop, the pleasingly named Bishop Otter campus in Chichester, where we took a look at their current exhibition 'Women Artists: Power and Presence' and had a look at Bryony's  work. 

She'd been practising hanging a few of her paintings ... not in the final exhibition space, I hasten to add. 

Back at Bryony's studio, I had a glimpse of the process of making both the paint and the art. 

Already I was aware of echoes and synchronicities, of which there would be more later in the day.