Jill Beagley

Castle Hill, Sidbury

NFS

Linocut print (framed)

Unframed, £300

Many years ago after much searching I found this view of Castle Hill, rising above Sidbury, just off a footpath, clear, with all the fields set out below. It was peaceful where I sat in this meadow beside a deep wide ditch with a stream running through with grasses and reeds spiking up in front of me.

The texture of the land in the foreground was important to the drawing and had to be included. Over the years I have been back several times for larger scale drawings. Since then I began working into the relatively soft linoleum as if it was a harder surface and found that I was able to cut the fine foreground.

In finishing the print this spring, I discovered that the same field and ditch that had become so familiar to me, has become a focus of a greatly opposed outline planning consent for an industrial estate/business park and the local community are trying for a judicial review. The proposed ten acre development, apart from destroying yet more natural habitat and causing pollution and traffic dangers from the many extra HGVs along the narrow road, will block out what I feel to be the best view of Castle Hill.