The Cotswolds near Cirencester and a sunny day. This is not far from an ancient Roman settlement and one would think that the poor Roman soldiers sent here all the those years ago might have seen a similar view across such a beautiful landscape. A considerably better posting than Hastings Wall, which if you have not visited is many miles North and was meant to keep the unruly Scots out of England . Both places worth a visit but I digress into travelogue speak.

Taken from a photo the drawing is in my usual Indian ink, applied with brush, sometimes toothbrush ( I use a separate one for my teeth ) and a cheap dip pen. It’s on coated card so the ink goes on a treat.

The scene has two lives. I was asked to help out a friend with a small website for him and his fellow musicians who call them selves the Swing Rioters. They play “folk punk old acidhouse fusion traditional ballad revolutionary ” tunes. The name comes from the name given to people who tried to destroy the early machines used on the land as they were against mechanisation in earlier times.

I was looking for an image that would work on the site, and the photo this drawing is taken from was the one I thought would work. I wanted it also to have drama and darkness, so converted it to black and white a messed with the contrast and light. You can see it here in its web incarnation and below as it was on the walk.

I doubt that the scene would have looked remotely like this in Roman times but may well have looked a little like this in the time time of major changes in the mechanisation of agriculture in the 1800s. There would, of course, have been considerably more people on the land, and a deal more wildlife. These days you see the odd youth driving a massive tractor listening to music in his hermetically sealed cab, hopefully it’s “folk punk old acidhouse fusion traditional ballad revolutionary ” but again unlikely.