Most English counties can call upon a famous poet or two but Suffolk has the proud claim to have inspired two of the greatest and most celebrated poems in the English language. These poems are so separated by time and spirit that no one to this date has ever linked them but Suffolk is the link. Explore by car and on foot key locations linked to these masterpieces.

The following article first appeared in the Winter 2007 issue of Green Pebble magazine (www.greenpebble.co.uk). Published with permission.

The following article first appeared in the Winter 2007 issue of Green Pebble magazine (www.greenpebble.co.uk). Published with permission.

The writer first came to know Robin Welch as an organic vegetable gardener, a man who loves to work with the earth; then as a walker, a man who walks out over the undulating Suffolk landscapes contemplating the moods of the approaching weather. Finally he came to know of him as a potter, a man who once upon a time had produced many utilitarian pieces for the home and table but who now sculpts and paints clay.

The following article first appeared in the Autumn 2007 issue of Green Pebble magazine (www.greenpebble.co.uk). Published with permission.

The instant appeal of Brüer Tidman’s work is his wonderful use of colour. There is no doubt he is a very accomplished colourist and often on a grand scale, as at the Salthouse 07 exhibition where his golden canvas of 8 feet by 16 feet dominated the entrants’ view.

J M W Turner (1775-1851)

Perhaps one of the most famous English landscape artists was J.M.W.Turner, born in London he attended the Royal Academy School of Art at the age of 15.

Within the year his work had been accepted for the Summer Exhibition. His early work consisted of drawings and watercolours on paper. Turner was twenty-one before he exhibited his first oil painting at the Royal Academy - Fishermen at Sea - in 1796.

A true artist of Woodbridge, Thomas Churchyard was born in Melton in 1798 just before the start of the Napoleonic wars. A bright child, he was sent to Dedham Grammer School, where John Constable had been a pupil some 20 years earlier. Although painting and illustration was always his first love, he trained as a solicitor, spending much of his spare time studying artists from the Norwich School, as well as illustrating a book of botanical subjects. Having finished his Articles he moved to London where he visited exhibitions at the Academy, seeing and being influenced by works by Constable.