Siena, Florence, Monteriggioni, Pisa

Had an excellent holiday in Siena, Italy.
Flew in to Pisa, stayed in Siena as a base and had day trips out to Florence and Monteriggioni.
Saw a lot of great architecture and art, ate a lot of nice food, drank a lot of good wine.
A beautiful part of the world.

Architecture, Diary, Photography, Travel ⋅ Posted by Rich

All Change at COUNTERWORK.CO.UK

I don’t know about you but I found the pandemic and the lockdowns to be a time of very little creativity.

Having all of that spare time was a boon for a lot of people - giving them the time to do all of those things they didn’t have time to do before. I, personally, found that the level of uncertainty: about jobs, income, the virus itself and how it was handled, just stopped me from being able to think about making any work.

The time has not been totally devoid of creativity.

I got a couple of projects over that period (Observatories and Guidepost, both for the Forest of Dean Sculpture Trust) but I was only able to do these because, as with most of my work, I was given a brief and a set of parameters.

I also spent a lot of time getting moderately more serious about making music. I’ve been writing and recording songs in various guises since the 90s, but it took the pandemic for me to actually take the time to write, record and put together a small collection of songs under the name Engine of Growth and actually release them into the wild. You can listen, and buy if you want, at Bandcamp.

Now we’ve emerged from the pandemic (even though it’s not entirely gone away) and places have opened up again, I feel it’s time to take stock of where I am. I’ve been applying for projects (as opportunities are starting to appear again), and I’ve given this website a little make-over. I’ve been thinking a lot about what kind of work I should make if I were setting projects for myself.

I feel like I need to get stuck back in to making things again.

Diary, News ⋅ Posted by Rich

Guidepost for The Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail

I’ve designed a new sculptural structure to display the Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail’s map and information panel.

In a change from my usual practice, it’s being fabricated by Faulds Creative Works.

Diary, News ⋅ Posted by Rich

It’s Xmas

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year in what has been the most unusual of years.

Here’s to a better future!

Diary ⋅ Posted by Rich

Observatories

I recently completed a lockdown commission for the Forest of Dean Sculpture Trust.

See documentation here and download a pdf with things to print and do here.

Diary, News ⋅ Posted by Rich