on 12 June 2023, I joined a party of artists and spent a day following the River Duddon from its source in the Lakes District Fells. The day was organised by Pip Wallace and Rebecca Seymour (Wallace Seymour) who have created a new series of art materials made from pigments found in the Duddon Valley, Cumbria.
Travelling by a Mountain Goat minibus, the group travelled the length of the valley from source to sea stopping at locations en route where we drew the landscape using paint, charcoal and pastel. At one location – Wallabarrow Bridge – I gave a talk about the Seven ‘Scenographic’ Principles I apply when creating site-specific walking-performance and, using examples, how these principles are influenced by Dorothy Wordsworth’s journal writing.
In three other sites the choreographer/dance artists Nigel Stewart and Julia Griffin performed movement interventions informed by that location and William Wordsworth's Duddon Sonnets.
