Recently, I spent the day at Strete Gate Beach with my family while on holiday in Devon. I decided to document this day in a variety of different ways. I was unable to get blank postcards so I decided to use envelopes as my starting point. I was challenged by a lack of materials and stimuli. Therefore, it was a fun challenge! Below are the outcomes and the challenges I set myself.

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Challenges

1. Beach textures collected and adhered to the envelope
2. Beach smudges (sun cream/charcoal etc.) and soaked in the sea
3. Beach smudges (sun cream/charcoal etc.) and soaked in the sea
4. Portraits of myself and my sister, by myself and my sister (continuous line/blind drawn etc.)
5. Handdrawn map of surroundings (Inspired by “From Here to There: A Curious Collection from the Hand Drawn Map Association”)
6. Journey bumps and bends (put pen to paper and see what happens!)
7. Journey bumps and bends (put pen to paper and see what happens!)
8. A collection of beach objects to create a mini beach in an envelope (one of these is making its way to Beckie in the post! We will see how it survives.)
9. Continuous writing for 2 minutes
10. Blind drawn picture of my dog Rocky

 

I think my favourite outcome of these mini exercises was the pen journeys. They really reflect the uneven and unexpected pleasure of driving in the countryside. Furthermore, looking at them now they look almost like coastlines. And we were travelling to a beach! They are a loose form of map. I think I could continue to use this practice to record a range of journeys. It might also be interesting to layer a more formal representation of the journey over the top (eg. traced off google maps).