TIM BAKER

A bit of a random post this with a loose theme – these are all images either of commons or looking over common land or of towers. I went through a stage of going to Long Ditton, namely Stoke’s Field which despite the name and rebranding as a ‘nature reserve’ it’s actually a common. This is where I did the first of the shelter drawings at the start of lockdown, seemed appropriate to go back.

I was seeking a view I found by accident in the dark trying to escape when I had to climb over the gate. This time there are ropes and signs there warning it is private land…still open to the common though. Anyway the closest to the view I saw was below ‘Viewside Fire’, but I remembered an animal trough and a pylon, so I don’t know where that was but it wasn’t here.

I did find a ploughed field while there, maybe that’s the field of the name so I did a Parallel Pen piece with extra inks, I think Dr PH Martin’s Bombay Ink, I was going for a Paul Nash feel, not sure I succeeded….

Further south is Claygate, which although on the K3 route I walked there via Winey Hill past the Ruxley Tower both of which you will see shortly. This was a clearing where local kids had sprayed graffiti on the trees and felt like a stoner hangout, and given my earlier experience with hilarious ‘CCTV’ sign on the actual common, the title ”Tragedy of the Commons’ is a reflection of that. I felt that distrust of outsiders was strong in Claygate.

This feels like an extension of the first shelter drawing – and is to the left was the strange little see-saw I drew for Inktober 52’s ‘Balance‘.

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As well as the Closed Common TV sign – does it magically see through trees? is the ‘Private Land’ sign I saw earlier on the walk to Ruxley Tower and Claygate. This is on what apparently is a public road through a set of stables that Google tried to direct me through…The stables were happily using the public bridleways though for their business – and indeed the horses were doing their business everywhere! So one rule for them…

Tragedy of the Commons is a theory exactly about that issue – different uses of public spaces can destroy them, although I suspect that theory might be also coded support for enclosure and private landlords to ‘properly’ manage these places. Anyway it was a good example of the disjunct between private companies wanting special rights but then happily (ab)using public property for their own gain – see also ‘disruptive’ Deliveroo riders enclosing the pavements.

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So backtracking a little – another place I spent a lot of time in lockdown was Winey Hill, behind Chessington World of Adventures. Indeed this view of Ruxley Tower was drawn and painted over two days in their ‘Tiger’ extension car park hence the name. I was fascinated by the green plastic dividers…again Nash-lite?

Ruxley Towers is a very strange white gothic tower built in 1870 by Lord Foley for his wife. I have seen it close at hand on a previous walk, I got clocked by a local walking her dog who seemed to not like me there just looking at it from the street. Claygate locals seem to not be that friendly to visitors to be honest…but having grown up near the richest parts of Surrey where that distrustful class mindset is rife, I ignore it and just march on. Nothing they can do about public roads or access…although these people do try, as you can see from the signs above.

And finally we have an earlier piece from Winey Hill itself, looking towards the large aerial or microwave/mobile antenna, not sure. This can be also seen in the piece above. I don’t use brush pens in my watercolour work often – it can be high risk as brush pens are a mood thing for me and very binary.

When they click and work they are the best thing ever and it’s all flowing and the lines are just as I want them. Other times it feels like treading through treacle and I am struggling with every line. I felt this one unlike the Barnes Cemetery watercolour was more b) than a) but looking back, it’s not bad.