Since September I have been working with images of the Shepherd’s purse plant both from current research at the James Hutton institute and from the collections at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh.

Finally worked out this picture, I was trying to show how the village was rooted in the landscape but also how the sea was undermining its 3 thousand year old foundations…..

All the pictures are back from the framers, and ready to go to the RSA tomorrow, just hope they are hung !Exhibition is being curated by Victoria Crowe (www.victoriacrowe.com

Have been working on a woodblock tonight and struggling with getting the block and the paper wet enough but not too wet , I wish I had 50years experience.) As usual the block is much nicer than the print.

The wall is having to be repaired here because of the huge seas that come crashing into the Bay of Skaill.

 

 

 

 

Foraminefera, also found in the water and help with climate change research. The rest of the picture is about core samples, where they are found and the top section is Mill Bay on Hoy where I did lots of drawing, and where Sue and Caroline hope to take more peat cores…..

Here, the idea is to  look at the landscape as it is today , but also at the detail that geographers use when they are working out sea level change .

Feels like I need a tutorial …..I’m trying to put everything in one picture, and it looks a bit like a History book illustration……so lots of versions will have to be made and choppped up etc etc…..The idea is about coastal erosion and the tough little houses at Skara Brae being slowly undermined by hugh waves coming in to the Bay of Skaill. (I think the architects of the future would have a lot to learn from building techniques used here, ie insulating your house with your rubbish/midden.) I have made a long drawing with the buildings at the top and then the retaining wall and then the sea , all a bit obvious when you write it down.

 

Oh the struggles, ok time to get on with it.

New pics coming at coffee time !

Some of the paintings made as a result of my residency in Orkney will be exhibited in the RSA in Edinburgh. The dates are Sat 30th April until 8th June.

http://www.royalscottishacademy.org

I was trying here to combine several aspects of The Rising Tide Project’s research, core samples from the loch, the neolithic site and the hills of Hoy, which must have been linked to the sighting of the stones. as they line up perfectly.

Just back from 5 days of drawing in the rain……..and distracting myself with creating a Blog to avoid making anything in my studio…………………