Deuchar Mill residency
Yarrow, Scotland
July 2017

I spent two and a half weeks at Deuchar Mill in the Scottish Borders at the invitation of Helen Douglas. She has lived there for over forty years, working as an artist and establishing the WeProductions imprint with Telfer Stokes. I used the time to work on a second iteration of the landscape series I've been developing recently. The series is a way to represent the experience of being in a landscape for an extended period of time, using texts laid out figuratively to explore responses to place.

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Yarrow Valley.

Studio with a stunning light from above and a very nice Vandercook 4.

Any residency for me begins by exploring the immediate landscape, looking for patterns, colours and layers. Later each day I'll make notes, keeping a track of responses and phrases.

Oystercatchers tracing their common route along Yarrow Water. Watching them every day helped to understand their routines and behaviour.

Rabbit head, placed at a field's edge probably as a warning.

First pass. The texts are largely 'written' from notes and memory while compositing.

First pass on the press. Yellow for the wheatfield and for the chemically-sprayed meadow.

Garamond italic 48 point parentheses.

f o r m a t i o n

Oystercatchers.

Yarrow Water.

Times Bold, the studio's workhorse.

Deuchar Mill sits on Yarrow Water and was a flour mill until it ceased production in early 20th Century. This is the route of the mill lade, the water course from the river, now overgrown.

Looking west across the meadow between the mill and Yarrow Water. It had been chemically sprayed earlier in the year, to uncover metal detritus that could damage equipment.

Definitions checked on: lade, swire, cauld, but and ben.

First pass: I think of this as a background text that can be explored over time.

Third pass. "There are no rights of way." // "Every way a right of way."

Fourth colour: circles from Virgin Wood Type.

Forme for fifth pass.

Trees.

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