Falling in love with The Ridgeway

Back in October in 2025 I was taken to see the Uffington Horse. That’s where my love affair with all things Iron Age began. I learnt that it was ‘on the Ridgeway’. I had no idea what that meant. It turns out The Ridgeway is Britain’s oldest road which runs between the Avebury Stone Circle (somewhere that I had visited several times and loved) and the Ivinghoe Beacon near Luton.

Looking for a new adventure, a good long walk and inspiration for my art, we started the 87 mile walk in February. Cold, slippery, wet.. I soon learnt to wear the right clothes, bring the right kit. It is a brilliant walk, it takes you through the chalky Chilterns to the North Wessex Downs. It’s exposed in places, runs through stunning woods (we timed that section for the bluebells by accident) and the very yellow rapeseed fields. All the while the red kites are our companions. We’re about half way, we’ll be walking the section running West from Goring Gap this Friday. So I haven’t even reached the Uffington Horse yet on foot which has been such an obsession, I will probably cry when I do.

In my art practice I have been experimenting with all things chalk as I follow in the footsteps of Iron Age man and everyone else (and their sheep) since on this ancient luminous trail. How best to convey it? With lots of trial and error sometimes using textured paste, thick oil, masking fluid, wax, chalk itself and of course leaving the white of the paper to do the work.

As someone who was taught never to use white, I am now celebrating it. The series continues…