Exploring the parks of Manchester

We’ve had some fantastic exchanges of work, thoughts and ideas over email, post and Zoom, but nothing beats meeting face to face.

So we decided to arrange a series of socially distanced park meetups, for the chance to meet and chat in person, as well as to do some research, creative responses, and idea generation for our current project,  Human: Nature

Here are some creative responses from the walks;

Walk 1 – Alexandra Park

We had a great afternoon in the park. We all agreed how important it is to our good mental and physical health to have trees around us and to get out and be amongst them. I’d love to repeat it with Pool Arts members and others if we could arrange another date. Roger

Images from Roger, Anastasia and Akinyemi

Find out more about Roger and Anastasia’s inspiration in this post about the Manchester Poplar Tree 

Walk 2 – Whitworth Park

Here are some images from the Whitworth park walk. We looked at some of the Sculpture works and focused on the details of nature around us. 

Images from I.Baron (Photography and digital works) and Alison Kershaw, featuring Annette and Maria

Here is Alison’s sketch of the Centre Circle

“which is a garden that’s enclosed in a circular fence – but seems a little overgrown.

I liked it and it reminded me of the old direct access hostel site near the studio

‘don’t fence me in’ the song that keeps going in my head.”

 

 

 

 

 

Walk 3 – Highfield Country Park

Lovely meet up with Dave, Pam, Simon and Nick. We strolled to Highfields, a “country park” created from a former landfill site that was previously a brickworks / dye works/ tripe factory and farm! Dave and Pam made some sketches and photo studies and we recorded the sound of leaves being released from the trees. We discussed how lockdown has affected some of us, how we feel about it going forward into the winter. Great to see everyone.

Here are some images from Nick, and Alison’s sketch from the pond at Highfields. “I made a hasty pencil drawing which I’ve added to with coloured pencils and watercolours once at home.”

“Thanks for yesterday. I got a lot out of it.” Nick

“Thank you all for a lovely walk -:so good to get some fresh air and chat with friends.” Pam

Thanks to everyone for joining us on the walks, some really lovely responses and discussions were had, we’re looking forward to planning some more in the near future (if the weather allows!)