At last a dry day with some sunshine meant being able to get a painting done.
It was not the easiest of sessions. The image is essential to my new project, being an overview of Structure 8, but it necessitated sitting in a position overlooked by the public. So a major effort to concentrate, and also distracted by many flies committing suicide in the wet paint.
Nevertheless less after the frustrations of last weeks weather, and feeling that not only were my feet not touching the bottom but that I was desperately treading water, I now at least have some material to work with when I get back home.
Also good things are beginning to happen on site. Work has restarted around the drain to the south of Structure 8 – an enormously deep hole that may well run underneath several structures.
And in trench J they have just lifted a large piece of bone – mammal not human.
All in all a good start to the week. Even if the weather disrupts my work for the rest of this residency, I will have made progress.
Message to self: just keep putting one foot in front of another…
The weather today was extremely windy and although I managed one drawing and a watercolour, the wind blew straight through me so I had to give up to go and get warm. The two studies of Structure 8 below will be combined with previous work and video.
Afterwards I recorded the wind. This is only achieved by getting out of the wind, so it doesn’t blow into the microphone, and recording the sound as it goes through the long grass.
Here’s a couple of random drawings of the archaeologists: having lunch and doing paperwork.
The forecast is for warmer weather tomorrow …
This year will be another shorter residency of just under 3 weeks, so my energies need to be focused, rather than drifting happily wherever the mood takes me.
Over the past year, I have been reflecting on how to proceed with my new piece of work combining oil paintings with videos made during past residencies.
Some experimentation layering the images meant I arrived in Orkney with a mental shopping list of the gaps that needed to be bridged between paintings and videos. However, as always, the reality of being on site has shifted my intentions.
On Day 1, drawing the uncovering of Structure 8, I was fascinated by the billowing tarpaulins and decided to allow both drawing and watercolour to be incorporated into the painting/video combination.
I won’t be able to explore this digitally until back home and able to make good quality scans of the images. But I now feel a sense of direction – even if my feet are as usual not touching the bottom…
The last day of this year’s residency. Three weeks have flown by too quickly. This is the shortest time I have spent at the Ness of Brodgar but on the other hand it is my first time away from home since the first lockdown – which took a bit of courage to undertake.
Today saw the world premiere of my film about the residency, shown on site as a private preview for the archaeologists. The film is not yet available for public viewing but an earlier edit of work in progress is available on Vimeo
We had converted a small portacabin into a cinema, which held six socially distanced people.
The plush interior
The exterior of the cinema and the projection room
The archaeologists enjoyed the film while I sat on the steps and drew the view.
So next week I head back home to my studio, where I will be making a final edit of the film for broadcasting and beginning to develop new work from the material collected, not just over the past three weeks but unused material, like the oil paintings, made in previous seasons on site.
Until next year…
Many hands helping with cleaning the floor for Drone photography in Structure 10.
Meanwhile the cinema in a hut has been taking shape for tomorrow’s world premiere for the archaeologists. Pictures of the event tomorrow.
