Nans / Vale – Emma Cox

Nans / Vale follows Cornish rivers into damp, mossy ground and beneath the woodland canopy, capturing the essence of these sheltered spaces through photography, art, and natural sculpture inspired by Cornwall’s landscape, history, and traditions.

A photograph of a hollow way with a path leading into the distance. There is little light as it has a canopy of trees shading the route so it feels sheltered and cave-like. — **Hollow way**
Leading us into shelter.

A photograph of a carpet of snowdrops in the low golden sunshine. — **Snowdrops**
The first signs of spring.

An acrylic painting of a Cornish beech woodland carpeted by bluebells. The low spring sun streams through the trees, casting long shadows on the ground. — **The Golden Hour**
The low sun streams through the trees.

A photograph of a Cornish woodland with early fresh green leaves forming on the trees. — **Spring leaf**
The lime-green leaves of springtime.

Colourful ribbons hang on a leafy thorn near a sacred Cornish holy well. — **Clooties**
Ribbons tied to a thorn in a sacred space.

A close up of a wind-felled tree trunk covered coins which have been hammered into the bark. — **Offerings**
Monetary gifts hammered into the bark.

A long exposure photograph of a waterfall cascading down a mossy rock face. The water fall reaches a basin framed by an arch (kieve) and pours through it into the stream. — **St Nectan’s Kieve**
The damp air is filled by the sound of the waterfall.

A natural sculpture of a Green Man on a tree trunk. He is made from natural clay and local fauna collected in the woodland. Artist: Emma Cox. The sculpture was slowly reclaimed by nature over the summer, autumn and winter. — **Green Man**
A natural woodland sculpture.

A photograph of a Cornish woodland in the height of summer. — **Minster Woods**
Woodland green at the high of summer.

A photograph of a Cornish woodland in late summer with the sunlight streaming through the leafy trees. — **Sunlight through the canopy**
Patterning the understory.

A photograph of Kennall Vale and the ruins of a derelict dynamites work. Old cogs long rusted into position as mantled with moss. — **Derelict Machines**
Industrial remains slow reclaimed by moss.

A photograph of a rotten, mossy tree branch in a cornish wood, which looks uncannily like an outstretched cadaverous hand waiting to pluck the unwary passerby. — Creatures of the Wood I
A disembodied hand waits to snatch the unwary traveller.

A photograph of the remains of a rotting tree stump in a Cornish forest which looks uncannily like the head of a dragon. — **Creatures of the Wood II**
A dragon rears its head from the woodland understory.

A long exposure photograph of a Cornish wood in autumn, with a river running through. — **Woodland Stream**
The colours are fading.

An ink pen drawing of a twisted oak in winter amongst a wood of similar trees. This is an example of a Temperate Rainforest, which once covered much of Cornwall. — **Twisted Oak**
Stunted trees reach for the winter light.

Here, the path diverges. Continue exploring the woodlands and streams, or take the track into open moorland.

← Return to Works

The Woods and Waterways →

The Cornish Moors →