A lifelong love of place

Creating atmosphere and enhancing the feeling of a drawing by adding 'weather'

By the time I made it to New York, I had been wanting to go there for at least 20 years. And, when I finally made it, it behaved itself perfectly and dumped a whole pile of snow down making this bustling city quiet. And covering all the grey with a beautiful crisp white.

I think I am guilty of falling in love with places almost as easily as I fall in love with people. I love places. And, for as long as I can remember I have always wanted to find new places to love. Since I turned 18 I have lived in 22 houses (and I’m now 43 so that is a lot of moving homes) in many different countries. I have mostly moved because I’ve wanted to, because I want to find the magic in another place. Wanted to learn about how people live there. I think it is perhaps something of an addiction.

While I usually find many things to love about the places I’ve lived, I began to realise realise that ‘weather’ was a key characteristic of all the places I fell most deeply in love with. My favourite days when I lived in Kenya were in the rainy season when the sky would turn almost black in the middle of the afternoon and rain would pour from the sky in bucketloads and roads quickly became impassible. This was the same in Kathmandu - my heart would skip a beat when the light got low as the storms rolled in and the light would make everything glow.

The incredible view from our kitchen in Kathmandu. The weather and light and energy it brought when it rolled in was everything.

The places that I have most deeply fallen in love with, have been ones that froze solid or got covered in snow - and my favourite moments in cold places in the world I think are in Estonia, Japan, Mongolia, China and the Nepali Himalayas.

Beautiful Mongolia under a fresh layer of snow.

Possibly the most amazing photo I’ve ever taken in one of the most magical places that exists on this planet. Beautiful Lake Kussharo. What you can’t see are the hot springs I have just climbed out of - free beautiful geo-thermally heated pools on the edge of this lake and we were the only people e.

I’m not sure exactly what makes me fall in love with the cold places the most. But I think there are a couple of things. Firstly, they are visually spectacular. When it snows, everything you see gets simplified. Somehow the white sky and white ground seem to make everything quite flat. Simple shapes and lines seem to replace the complicated messy layers that were there before. Colour gets muted. Although if there is anything particularly bright it stands out even more (swans beaks above). It is almost as though the world turns itself into a limited colour palette.

Another of my favourite photos taken in the park in my favourite city in the world, Tallinn.

When the colours get limited and the shapes and lines simplified, to my crazy mind the stories somehow get enhanced. Moments, like the one above, with that lone woman crossing the snowy park, somehow become quite momentous. They catch my eye more easily and the world feels full of stories.

The second reason I think I love cold places is less what they look like, and more how they make me feel. I think my favourite thing in the world is to go out into a frozen world, where the wind freezes my cheeks and my eyes water and there is no hiding from that feeling of being truly ‘alive’. And then, going back inside, into somewhere warm, dry and cosy.

Interestingly, I haven’t yet found a way in my drawing to really capture the first part of my love of cold places - what they look like and the simplification of the world into shapes and lines - I think I love to use photography for that. But, the second, trying to capture the ‘feeling’ I have in places that are cold is something I think I have got better at.

Adding rain! This is a picture of Bergen, in Norway, but based on imagery and google maps rather than reality. Norway is on my list of dream destinations but I have not yet made it there. At least I can still draw it.

When I started drawing again it was a long time before I thought to add ‘weather’ to my drawings. And as soon as I did they felt more ‘me’. I suddenly found they had a spirit and a feeling in them that I felt far more pleased with. They started to capture the feelings I have in these cold places that I love. Often these do not look like the places I have been, or perhaps they are invented locations created because I wish I was somewhere with that beautiful cosy glow. Sometimes I add snow. Sometimes rain. Sometimes just dark stormy skies.

A cosy imagined kitchen in a home I would like to have

A Christmas market in Germany… so much more atmospheric because I thought about what the weather would be doing and added lighting and of course some snow.

I was surprised how much of a difference thinking about the weather made to my work. Surprised how much more I enjoyed the resulting images and how much more easily it helped to capture a sense of place - the magic that I felt when I was somewhere, or when I imagine I am.

Friends. Somehow so much more content and still and richer because of the weather outside… at least to my eyes :)