Our last Kick-About was a celebratory compendium of five years of ‘kicking it about’—and speaking personally, I do look forward to these fortnightly opportunities to ‘think a thing, do a thing and share a thing’ as little lights on the horizon of often more humdrum vistas. Fittingly, this first prompt of the ‘new year’ is simply titled ‘Lighthouse’. To enjoy all previous editions of The Kick-About go here.
Vanessa Clegg
“In my usual low tech cobbled together way I’ve done a tiny scene of desperation—the only survivor caught in the unsentimental sweep of the lighthouse eye. But is it manned and where’s the lifeboat? The storm is a brewing…|
vanessaclegg.co.uk / vanillaclegg
Francesca Maxwell
“The Lighthouse has a lot of meanings for me. The “Faro” over Genova’s harbour, where I was born, is an imposing and memorable construction, always awake like the sea. Sailing in the mediterranean all the lighthouses in the night were so comforting. In a rough sea they were confirmation of land. In a calm sea they were the reassurance the harbour was there if needed. A human connection in the profound solitude of the sea and sky.“
Ashley
“During the Covid period, one of the best books that I read was Tom Nancollas’s Seashaken Houses. Being in a lighthouse might have been one of the safest places during those awful lockdowns! The book concentrates on lighthouses built on rocks out at sea and the first ever built here was the Eddystone lighthouse, 13 miles off the coast from Plymouth on the south coast of England in 1697.
The story of its build is an amazing one, considering that at the time England was at war with France. However, one man, Henry Winstanley rose to the challenge and in 1698 the first Eddystone lighthouse was completed. Looking at his drawings and a painting done at the time, the lighthouse looks…fantastical….! With all our modern technology and knowhow, it is difficult to believe that it ever stood up, but it did, for several years. In 1703 Henry decided he wanted to stay in the lighthouse during a storm. Unfortunately, the storm that arrived in November of that year was what Daniel Defoe described as a “terror”. Henry, along with all those employed to help carry out the routine maintenance, were lost, along with the lighthouse!
After that time, several designs were built and lost, until James Douglass in 1882 founded the current position 40 yards to the south east and that lighthouse with several modernisations, still stands today. It was fully automated and powered by electrics in the 1950’s with a helicopter deck added in the 1980’s. I used one of Henry Winstanley’s drawings as a template for my sketch.”
Lewis Punton
“I’ve been exploring breaking down larger (and sometimes smaller) subjects into their own language of marks lately, and the monolithic structures of lighthouses nestled upon romantic coastlines presented a wonderful excuse to find a spot for further exploration in the latest edition of the Kick-About. Depicting stationary giants surrounded by a maelstrom of rushing waters, as well as the rotation of the constantly turning bulbs, these contemporary drawings are my attempt at capturing the drama and melancholy of a seaside staple.”
James Randall
“I had intended a painting entry but the small work took a turn for the worst! Luckily I had been working on an electronic image that had a structure in it that could be adapted. So with a few modifications and some additional image layers… “
Charly Skilling
“When I began looking at images of lighthouses and the huge lamps used to project light across miles of sea, I was struck by the sheer number of geometric shapes incorporated into their structures. The circles within circles that form the lens of the lamp; the diamond panes of glass designed to minimise damage from stones and debris thrown up by the waves; the rectangles of the panelling found in so many lighthouses; and, of course, the curvature of the lighthouse walls themselves.
I decided to try and capture some of these shapes in a piece of freeform crochet—and, of course, I plunged straight in. Looking back, I can safely say that a little more thought and planning would probably have resulted in a more abstract, better-composed, and “cleaner” image, but c’est la vie!“
Kerfe Roig
“I wanted to explore the circular staircase inside. I tried a collage but it went nowhere, so I did a series of monoprints and then, as I so often do, I cut two of them into squares to make a grid.”
kblog.blog / methodtwomadness.wordpress.com
Phil Gomm
“I’m typing this preface just before the Kick-About goes live this morning. I was hoping I could have this lighthouse-inspired short story finished for today, but I couldn’t quite get there—but not for want of trying. I’ve just the denouement to conclude and then a final edit, so I’m sharing an excerpt today and will follow-up with the completed story in a few days time. There is something supremely narrative about the idea of a lighthouse and my interest in this story began with thinking about the role of the lighthouse keeper, and why a person might be in need of all that isolation…”
You can read the excerpt here
philgomm.com / behance.net/Phil_Gomm
And for our next creative ‘lightbulb moment’ – a rather celebrated bulb!
Red's Kingdom 
Leave a comment