When I arrived the tide was much further in than when I had previously visited the site although it was 2 hours before high tide. The tide was going to be a fairly small one though so I had time to get cut-off and be released.
As I approached the under side of the cliff, the landscape appeared very different due to the level of the water. Whether it was because I had to pick my way nearer to the cliff, or I had just not noticed it before, I thought I noticed a fresh landslip. The landslip was quite large and felt fresh because there was no vegetation on top, and the rocks that had spilled out were torn very cleanly. This underlined to me that this landscape is in itself very transitory. The very fragility of this monolithic lump of rock, the highest point on the south coast, became very apparent.
I scrambled through to a small beach that I knew would not be affected by the tide. I was looking for a rounded rock on which to work. I found the rock and noticed that it had quite a few fossils within it. I had decided to work with clay again as I love the sensual nature of this material. After feeling the form that the sculpture would take I put the first bit of clay on the rock. Immediately I changed my mind. The form in my mind had suddenly changed. The form that I now saw was very different from the idea that had first appeared. This rock had a living, organic history and I had decided to revisit the Newgrange idea, but with threads coming up from out of the beach. This would form an organism that would appear to be coming out of the beach to sun itself on top of the rock. An organic form that held the secrets of the rock that it sat upon, like no other form of life that has existed before.
A beautiful, tranquil day with only the sound of the gently lapping sea and the calls of a few sea-birds to reinforce my thoughts.