My favourite place in England is the south coast County of Dorset. Portland
Bill is like one giant lump of rock sticking out into the sea and from
pre-historic to present day the stone has been quarried, worked and
moved using massive amounts of effort and determination.
Along the coastline
are deserted or "resting" quarries left
just as they were abandoned with stacks of partly dressed stone waiting
patiently for shipment.
These are magical places. Exposed strata, scarred
surfaces, huge volumes of block and waste stone all present one with
man's relationship
with stone just as much as the sites of prehistory.
I have tried to paint
the enduring quality of the material and also some of the abandoned
hoists, chains and tackle used to handle the huge blocks.
Further
along the coast on the inland "Isle" of Purbeck the
domestic and agricultural use of stone in walls has the intuitive flow
of the landscape caught in the rise and fall of the courses, some from
Napoleonic times. The effects of animals, ivy, trees and roots does amazing
things to the stone which feature in many of my paintings.
