This year, I have begun writing as well as drawing, bearing witness to the activity on site. So from now on, alongside drawings and paintings, I will be posting written observations rather than journal entries.
Wind and rain. Have to lean into the wind and have my back to it so the rain doesn’t hit the notebook. Archaeology continues. Diggers are made anonymous by their hoods. Nearly all have their backs to the weather. They are marginally more sheltered, being lower in the trench.
From the foreground to the horizon: piles of stones, a row of diggers, wheelbarrows and kit, mound of spoil, loch with water racing and breaking small white topped waves, Stones of Stenness, cars and coaches on the causeway and Stenness car park. The buildings beyond forming a first horizon, with the hills rising as a faint shape merging seamlessly into grey cloud.
My feet are numb. I need thicker socks. They have had three weeks of sun before I arrived. Did I bring the bad weather with me? The rain has stopped but the wind continues. It’s lunchtime. Maybe it will be possible to draw this afternoon.
Small triangle incised in a flat stone. Another triangle tip to tip making a butterfly. The second triangle mostly concealed under another stone. The significant marks in a position to suggest that its existence was more important than its visibility. So this affirms that something visual is not necessarily meant to be seen. It will now be meticulously cleaned, protected and recorded. Presumably it will eventually become an exhibit, where its visual-ness will take precedence over its original placement.
