Doffing Rocks

Talking of matters ambiguous and floating, I want to describe something of the work of Fenny Bentley of Fleams.  This is the picture of Miss Fennel (known as Fenny) Bentley of Fleams from the archives of Kate W. Aimson:

Miss Fennel Bentley of Fleams



I am re-reading Kate's little book about Fenny, but the content is very mysterious.  It describes the work of doffing that Fenny was a specialist in.  Doffing can relate to nature, or personal objects can be doffed.  A lot of Fenny's doffing was about nature.  A doff is a way of incorporating something fully into your life; it is a way of caring for it; tending it, as they would say in Fleams.  Fenny had a mystical, yet everyday relationship with the natural world around Fleams, which Kate W. Aimson saw in Fenny's work.  Here is a photograph Kate took of one of Fenny's doffs:

A doffed rock
 

The art of Fleams is chiefly abstract.  It is not that the inhabitants of Fleams were incapable of representative art, but rather that representative art could not adequately express their vision.  This was too mysterious, too ambiguous, too sophisticated in its relationship to their everyday world to be expressed through representative art.

I just love this way of seeing the world.  When I went for a walk on the Pinewood Trail at Inverewe, I saw a fantastic boulder in the trees.  On the other side of the trail from it was another boulder conveniently placed for you to sit on and view it.  At the time, I was thinking about art trails.  When I set out on the trail, there was a notice on the signpost, stating that an artist-in-residence had made an art trail of installations on the top stretches of the trail.  As I walked round, I was looking for the art.  I have found in the past these things are best when you come upon them unexpectedly, as a delightful surprise.  It is quite different when you are looking for THE ART. 

So, as I sat looking at the beautiful boulder, I was thinking: what if there was no art, and the sign just made you look at the woods in a different way.  Perhaps, expecting to see art, you would view natural phenomena as art.  Perhaps you would see the beauty around you, that you might otherwise miss. 

Now I have a picture in my head, waiting to get out, of the beautiful boulder in the pinewoods, doffed in the manner of Fenny Bemtley.