Yesterday, halfway through my painting, the sky on the horizon went black with rain and a small twister. It was too late to alter the sky, but I think it may show in the way the foreground picked up the light.
I went to see the place where there’s an ‘invisible’ drawing but the sun was already too fully on the stone. I need to get there on a sunny morning before the coffee break.
Structure 8 is enormous, stretching away across most of Trench P – in fact all that is visible of the trench if you stand at the structure entrance. No one will ever know what they did there 5000 years ago – or why, or when, the large water-washed boulder was placed in the doorway.
Changeable weather again – so what’s new?
Chris, who makes carved stone balls using neolithic tools, has suggested composing a still life of them. Why does Chardin come to mind first, when I empathise with Cézanne’s approach. Chris agrees we should go for Cézanne’s apples.
Another pigment from Martha’s stones. I’m beginning to take on my version of the methodical record keeping, which is all around me here.
An amazingly still day – hardly any wind, which is so unusual. Voices carry across the trench. Huge cotton wool clouds moving very slowly. Some rain on the far horizon. The sky is so big. The trench is huge when you keep your eyes on the ground but becomes tiny when you look up to the sky. Has the normal windy weather meant that I keep my head down?
Then the rain came down.
Structure 1 has an unbelievably square plan. Hard to believe its age and ability to survive.
Trench tour for the many specialists working with the Ness of Brodgar makes me feel in awe of the complexity of the dig. Put in parallel with my project as Artist in Residence, it shows up the bewildering nature of what I am attempting. Must hold on to the process of drawing and trust that will reveal a way forward.
On a lighter note, at morning coffee break, while getting out of the wind, flapjack and shortbread are passed round. Other food consumed includes sushi and crunchy peanut butter balanced on banana.
