Took a walk as is a usual starting point in this place in order to feel the ambience. Noticed that all of the sculptures here that I have recently done are still complete and that they all lie slightly off the main path. They also all require a bit of a diversion off this main path to get close to them in order to appreciate the full detail. Only when you come into contact with them do they reveal their full story although they do sit and make their own statement in the landscape.
I made the decision where to work and it is very close to the first piece of this series. This whole plateau has a feeling of instability as there are some obvious geological rents in the landscape. There are also some impressive cracks in some of the larger stones that litter the area. These are signs of great forces at work at some time in the past. These deep rents in the earth dictated what I should do today.
Start building a cairn with a rent / crack all the way through from the ground to the top. Soon discover that I will have to build this in two halves as I cannot reach all the way into the centre with the heavy stones that I need to use. The cairn sides are going up much more steeply that the previous ones. This could be a problem as it may cause a collapse later on before the piece is completed.
I work for about two hours and then notice that in the bay to the north it is raining heavily and with the sun in the south a beautiful rainbow has appeared that dives into the sea. After a while I realise that this would be a good picture opportunity as a background to the spiral / twirl that was twenty yards away. By the time I get the camera out and clamber up the slope to get a picture the rainbow is slowly disappearing. I wait for ten minutes as the rainbow gradually disappears, no chance for a picture now. Missed the moment!
I work for another half an hour and then the heavens open. Heavy rain and hail. The stones all get too wet to work with. They are rough enough to use when dry, but with rain to soften my poor hands, they would get ripped to shred in no time. Wait for ten minutes to see if the rain will stop, and decide reluctantly to call it a day. I’ve got thoroughly soaked. I will have to return another day to finish this off….
I finished the sculpture on my next visit. Again it seems to fit into the landscape and interpret it in the way that I meant very well.
One thing I did notice whilst building is that at about 12:30 the sun shines directly through the crack. Just before this the sun hits one side of the crack wall and reflects onto the other side. If you look through at a certain angle this makes the inside of the sculpture seem to glow as if it’s been lit from the inside. This sculpture then captures the sun and could be renamed “Sun Catcher”, but it’s for such a short time that people would not really appreciate the significance.