What students are making in Sensing Place with Debbie Lyddon

I've spent the last couple of weeks in the student group for Sensing Place, and it's been a pleasure watching gets to grips with the work.

I love how everyone responds differently. You start with the same prompts, the same materials and ideas, and each of you ends up somewhere entirely your own. A shoreline becomes a line of stitch. A sound becomes a mark. Your walks become a series of small, careful pieces. This is  exactly what I hoped this course would do – help you notice the landscape around you and find your own way of recording it.

It's been a joy seeing you work through the modules. You began with sight, walking and observing, filling sketchbooks with what you noticed. Then came listening – really listening – and paying attention to sound and touch as well. From there came the mark-making, drawn from memory and imagination rather than from what's directly in front of you. Now I'm seeing those marks find their way into your drawings, stitched cloth, and mixed media pieces, and that's a lovely thing to witness.

Here are a few of the pieces shared in the private student group so far, along with some thoughts from the makers.

From sound to stitch: Andrea D.

For Andrea, Sensing Place has provided an opportunity to look and listen more closely to the landscape around her home in South Wales.

Her explorations began with walks to a local old church and churchyard outside Monmouth, where an ancient yew tree, crumbling headstones and views towards the River Wye became starting points for sketches, painted and textured papers, collage and stitch.

As she moved into Module 3, Andrea turned her attention to sound. A walk through nearby woods provided a new collection of sensory details: leaves and pine cones scrunching underfoot, the rustling tree canopy, a distant woodpecker and, most memorably, a very noisy squirrel.

After initially feeling that her sketches were too static, Andrea experimented with ways of giving those sounds more movement before translating them into stitch.

"My stitched interpretations included both hand stitch and machine on fabric and felt more resolved when I isolated the ‘red’ sound, based on squirrels screeching, in red hand-stitched thread."

We love seeing the journey from something heard on a walk, to a drawn mark, and finally into thread and fabric.

Artwork by Andrea D.

Learning through making: Marta N.

Marta has been exploring the places closest to home, showing that our creative starting points don’t need to be somewhere spectacular.

Living in the suburbs, she decided to focus on her own front yard, street and neighbouring houses during her walk.

“I live in suburbs, don’t have spectacular views, so I decided to focus on my closest area, my front yard, street and houses near to my house.”

Those observations found their way into her sketchbook and her first caterpillar book, opening up a new way of working that she quickly wanted to explore further.

“I enjoyed so much creating my first book... I will definitely use the same method to create a book from my old prints.”

Marta has also been experimenting with stitched paper collage, despite being completely new to using a sewing machine. There have been unfamiliar threads, stitches and plenty of problem-solving along the way, but that has become part of the process.

Artwork by Marta N.

As Marta puts it: “Anyway it is a learning process, so I just need to practice, practice, practice...”

It’s a lovely reminder that trying a new process doesn’t have to begin with knowing exactly what you’re doing. Sometimes making, experimenting and practising are how we find our way.

It's thoughtful, generous work, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops over the coming weeks.

Thank you for the time you're giving this course. Time is an investment, just as the cost is, and I don't take either lightly.

It's been especially good to work alongside you right now. I've moved recently, and I'm using this time to invest in my own practice too. So we're all exploring new places together.

If you haven't enrolled yet, It would be great if you would join us. This is the last time Sensing Place will run as an interactive course with me in the student group, so this is your chance to share your work, ask questions, and be part of the conversation while it's happening.

I'd love to meet you, see what you make, and hear about the places that matter to you.

Warmly,
Debbie