Lawson 
 Park 
 Farm 

With one fail swoop Lawson Park passes from Grizedale Arts to Leck Construction and work begins on what will become Grizedale Arts new home, well only the small matter of a giant swan, a colossal billboard and a barn full of abandoned refrigerator parts to sort out, all various remnants of artists projects.

Posted by Lisa Stewart
Monday, January 14, 2008 at 11:00 GMT

Topics: 'building' 'Lawson Park' 'Leck Construction'

We finally handed Lawson Park to the builders – Leck, a local firm who will be here for 9 months stripping and rebuilding the interiors of the house and barns. Day one coincided with torrential rain - combine rain and builders and you get knee deep mud , and the impression the building is just a pile of stones sliding down a muddy hill – which I guess it is - all its significance and meaning evaporated like it never was. It really brought a lot of memories back to me of people and dinners, events and extraordinary happenings, it was nice to be reminded and to think about how much had come from the house and the location.

Here’s a few moments that sprang to mind
6 wives of Henry the 8 reversing into the ravine
Colin Lowe and Roddy Thomson fighting and crying
Emily Wardill’s black dinner
Jesse Rae’s radio station
Olaf Breuning listening to a chainsaw artist singing a song about a cat
Damon Packard’s table manners
Juneaus burning a radio over a camp fire and the radio just kept going and going
Mark Wallinger repeatedly talking over a particularly boring dinner guest who kept mentioning Andy Goldsworthy
Karen in animated discussion flanked by Robert Woof and Ken Russell
The Japanese villagers of Toge changing into my giant checked clothes following a very wet mornings work
Gelitin partying in the meadow
Rose Lord, Adam Chodzko and Clio Barnard walking down the drive dressed as the 3 pigs
Kerry Stewart’s giant swan being mistaken for a real swan
Jon Ronson dancing hard, alone, to ELO in the barn after the Festival of Lying
Sarah Staton re-appearing in her car, hours after a dinner party ended, having been lost in the forest
Nina & Karen locked into the dining room for a week sewing elaborate Tudor costumes
Robert Woof (shortly before his death) walking slowly through the wild flower meadow to see the rare orchid

If you have any of your own please add them via the comments

Posted by Adam Sutherland
Monday, January 14, 2008 at 10:45 GMT

Here's young design guru Supermundane getting superinspired about thinking up new signage for Lawson Park, as part of the Yes design duo's work for GA. As it was our director Adam's birthday we all got treated to a bountiful pub dinner, and a very convivial night it was too.
One of the challenges is to think up some cool ways to signpost / name things like the raised vegetable beds, which for over a year we have struggled to do. Current favourite is to name the beds after past GA projects but how the hell anyone is meant to remember which one is 'It rocks, but gently' as opposed to 'Roadshow' or 'Let's Get Married' may mean a long stay on the drawing board for that concept.

Posted by Karen Guthrie
Wednesday, January 2, 2008 at 16:25 GMT

After several weeks of neglect following our temporary move away from Lawson Park, the Kitchen Garden looked a tad forlorn when I started my tidy-and-harvest session today. There were - surprisingly - quite a few passers-by despite the drizzle, but I do miss having the cats around when I'm there now - they however think nothing of their wild former home as they lounge among the central heating in our new place.
The Honesty Stall would have done good business had I anything green to spare for sale.
So - on the 31st December 2007 we harvested a basket of the following:
Turnip 'Golden Globe' (growing in the polytunnel)
Mixed salad (also in the tunnel)
Savoy cabbage
Lamb's lettuce
Black radish 'Hamburg' (insanely hot to taste)
Chrysanthemum greens
Scorzonera
Parsnip 'Tender and true'
Beetroot 'Chioggia'
Radicchio
Burdock
Celeriac
Brussel sprout 'Cavalier'

The worst weather here is yet to come, but I'm still justifiably chuffed with this for a Hogmanay haul...

Posted by Karen Guthrie
Monday, December 31, 2007 at 22:11 GMT

Topics: 'vegetables'

Here's a drawing of life at Lawson Park by my talented niece Emma Quinn, who seems to have pictured the pigs as angels looking down on the human and feline inhabitants.

Posted by Karen Guthrie
Thursday, December 20, 2007 at 13:25 GMT

A go at the massive Lawson Park compost bins today revealed a tremendous worm community within the layer of shredded art junk mail within.
Hmmm.

Posted by Karen Guthrie
Tuesday, December 11, 2007 at 17:15 GMT

With the added pathos of God-awful weather last Monday, Lawson Park was emptied in readiness for the big refurb to start.All we have left behind are the mortal remains of the 2 Grizedale pigs, curing on a rafter in the upstairs bedroom to put off any would-be squatters.
The team from the movers Steeles packed with awesome speed, so much so we worried that the cats might be in one of the boxes. But they weren't, they're safe and well and relishing the centrally-heated temporary accommodation.

Posted by Karen Guthrie
Saturday, December 8, 2007 at 12:19 GMT

I can't stop myself scouting around the Web for images from the outside looking in....
Here are
a mountain bikers view of Lawson Park and someone else's.

Posted by Karen Guthrie
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 at 13:00 GMT

Processed pigs, or some of them anyway. That's a lot of work and a whole lotta pig. This picture shows the smoked and brined bacon and hams drying. In 3 - 4 months they will be ready to supplement the broad bean cafe. There are also a vast array of sausages - dried mainly - and rather too much brawn and potted meat. After you've done all that processing the one thing you don't want to do is eat pig.

Posted by Adam Sutherland
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 at 11:59 GMT

It's taken a while but finally and in time for the Karen Guthrie and Nina Pope's Leeds show - we have a finished Lilliput Lane model of Lawson Park, their vision of how it will be. This model along with the Japanese house will be editioned as a joint multiple of 21. The Japanese house will then be used in the village in Japan where the village will produce models for the gift market - an alternative product for the village, craft based and a bit different for Japan and hopefully a start of something new in terms of product. Lawson Park model will also be produced, not exactly sure what we will do with it to give it some bite, we will think of something, available on the honesty stalls soon.

I had kind of forgotten that art people find these things gross, the idea that some aesthetics are not acceptable seems strange now, these models just make me think about what it is that appeals so much, the smallness, the change of proportions, the image of the rural, of heritage, of life style fantasy. The magazine that Lilliput Lane put out (50,000) has many testamonials from buyers, touching explanations of the joy these things bring to thier owners, often linked to death, a vision of heaven. Laugh if you must.

Posted by Adam Sutherland
Sunday, November 25, 2007 at 14:45 GMT