I switched on the radio the other day to hear the verdict on the end of the late August heat wave. 'Well that was Summer' said the announcer, bluntly. I switched off again. Here we are in early September and it's as mild as any Summer's day. But we're already into that season when the harvest is gathered in, the fruits of elder and bramble are bursting from the hedgerows, and it won't be long before the leaves are showing their Autumn colours. This month I've chosen a pastel of a subject looking towards Cley-next-Sea. It was drawn a day or two after the combine harvester had done its work and the bales were dotted across the landscape like large abstract sculptures. Beyond is the church and the Three Swallows Pub - an appropriate name for this time of year, when there are swallows to be seen everywhere, as they congregate in rows along telegraph wires, contemplating 'the off'. The swifts went ages ago - one day the sky was full of their screams and scimitar sharp aerobatics. The next, they were gone. The swallows, however, are still with us. It seems hardly any time at all since the first of them came skimming over the water and landed with an exhausted 'plop' on the beach after their long flight from the continent. Now, after a busy Summer raising their families, they're collecting on the overhead cables, their minds turning in the direction of South I did this rapid sketch at 7am one morning, thinking, 'got to be quick, get the 'jiz', any moment they'll be away, and that will be it until next spring.' I spent half an hour watching the rows build up, and what a mixture there was, from sleek adults to somewhat untidy juveniles. This adult cast a motherly eye on the offspring, who still hadn't quite mastered the skill of balancing on cables, but teetered about, wings and tails every which way. Now and then they all flew up twittering and scolding, and then resettled, and more came, pushing themselves into the smallest space between their chattering companions. Others appeared to be chilling out on their perch, apparently settled for the day. Having got down my first impressions, I left the swallows to fight for their respective spaces on the telegraph wires, while I went indoors for a quick breakfast. When I returned a short time later, armed with paints and newly sharpened pencils, the cables were empty. I scanned the field opposite for a sight of them, but nothing. I kept checking at intervals, unwilling to accept that my brood had upped and left in the time it had taken me to down a bowl of cereals. Surely they were just off on an insect foray? Surely they would be back to give me one more chance to sketch them jostling for position on the communal perch? But as the day went by and the sun set on the empty wires, I had to concede that by now they were probably well into Suffolk and heading for warmer climes. This story will be repeated over the coming days, as wave after wave of swallows leave our shores. At least, before they went I managed to get this impression of them all lined up and ready to go:- They were all facing South except the one on the end. Maybe he'd forgotten to set his satnav... A few stragglers will stay longer - I've walked on our heath in late October, with swallows scything past my ears, skimming the wheaten grasses in pursuit of low-flying insects. It has become for me one of the uplifting sights of Autumn to watch these last two or three flying all around me, unconcerned by my presence. But sooner or later they, too, will feel the pull of the warm southern air too much to resist, and away they will go. And then the only swallows left in Norfolk will be the 'Three Swallows' at Cley... 'Cley Church and the Three Swallows Pub' was worked in pastel on Tiziano paper - a lovely flecked paper with a soft wove surface. The rest of the swallows were drawn in 2b pencil and watercolour on a lightweight sketching paper.
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Judith Key
Judith Key is a Norfolk based artist, working in watercolour and pastel. She has exhibited with the Society of Graphic Fine Artists and New English Art Club at the Mall Galleries, London. Her paintings are in collections worldwide. Categories
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May 2018
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