This morning the site was closed so I spent some time preparing my talk for Saturday at the Pier Arts Centre. It’s called Work in Progress and is quite hard to put together, as the work to date is really a collection of drawings, paintings, sound and video – all ‘in no particular order’. However, it is making me think hard about how my research could fit in with the archaeological research.
When I arrived on site after lunch, the sky needed to be painted.
The low cloud was partly sitting on the horizon and the rest of it looked as though it was bleeding downwards.
Two more portraits today:
As usual I recorded conversations while drawing. Antonia talked most interestingly about her special field – the relationship between artists and archaeology and how they work together. It made me realise the complexities of being Artist in Residence and some of the pitfalls to avoid. Scott is an archaeological geologist and works on the hi tech aspect of the dig, bringing a lab to the excavation and providing chemical analysis on site. He also flies the drone, taking photos of the site from the sky as part of his interest in environmental change.
While waiting to draw Scott, I watched rocks being washed in the kitchen.
One of the rocks shows signs of having ‘a life’, which means it has been used by Neolithic people as a work stone. The traces of human activity in the past are fascinating.
