The River Test flows quietly by itself through much of rural North Hampshire. Relatively few public footpaths coincide with it for any distance, which is probably no surprise when you consider how valuable the river’s banks are in terms of fishing rights. Towns and villages, however, frequently have riverbank paths.
The first town that the river flows through is Whitchurch, and it was there that I found a second swing suspended over the water, at the back of a residential property. It was very different to the tyre swing at Flashetts. It was distinctly urban, and had an air of abandonment to it.
Backwater
12 x 16 inches, inks on kaolin-coated board.
Framed, black wood tray frame. Varnished and ready to hang.
£330
Media note: All the inks I use have a high light fastness rating. Most are pigment inks and are sold as “India(n) Inks” – this term traditionally refers to the black ink made from lampblack, which is the black that I use in these drawings, but some manufacturers use it to describe their ranges of similarly robust coloured inks.
“Backwater” is part of a project documenting the upper reaches of the River Test in North Hampshire.
