Page 4 - Art First: Bridget Macdonald: Arcadia

A R C A D I A

Arcadia is a real place and a place of the imagination. coming into leaf and there were small flocks of sheep
e real Arcadia is a remote and mountainous region and goats, even an old shepherd with a ragged flock.
of the Peloponnese in Greece. In Greek mythology In October we returned for a road trip which took in
Arcadia is the home of Pan, the god of nature, woods Delphi, Olympia, and the temple to Apollo at Bassae
and flocks but it is also the source of a complex literary in Arcadia. It was still warm enough to swim in the
and artistic concept which has come down to us Gulf of Corinth but in Arcadia there were wild storms
through the centuries and still plays a significant part followed by a sharp frost. An old woman running
in the way we view our own countryside. I live in a part a tiny roadside cafe in her front room gave us her own
of England on the Herefordshire/Worcestershire walnuts, raki and bread. On the television in the corner
borders, where farms, orchards, hopyards, rivers and we could see rioting in Athens, smoke, cars over-
hills reflect the ideal pastoral landscape. I was brought turned, politicians gesticulating. e troubles which
up in a farming family in another different but beauti- were building up in May had reached boiling point
ful coastal landscape on the Isle of Wight. Certain by October and the agony continues−but there were
landscapes touch my imagination, oen because they few signs of strife in the countryside.
show the traces of continuous human interaction
over centuries and I need signs of habitation by Another journey took us to Provence in February
animals or humans to give resonance. 2012: we explored the Camargue in brilliant sun, the
mistral blowing strongly, everywhere freezing and
In May 2011 I visited Arcadia for the first time. On the glittering in the wind. Groups of black bulls and white
coast it was hot and orange blossom scented the air but horses in a flat landscape; the sense of the sea and the
in the mountains of Arcadia it was an earlier season clarity of the light were marvellous−another version
of plum and apple blossom, walnut orchards were just of Arcadia.