I’d noticed this place on my previous trip to Portland, but had mentally noted it for a future visit. This particular place is obviously well used as there are about six marks on the grass where fires have been previously lit, and during my work on this day I found a discarded tent peg. It is well protected on three sides and looks as if has been quarried out from the stone. The fourth side is the sheer cliff edge going down to the sea. The weather the previous day had been extremely windy. It was still quite windy and the sea had a good swell on it, but was sunny with only a light threat of the occasional shower.
I have found that I often start in a new place by building a stack as I did on the previous visit. This enables me to get a feel for the place and also the materials that are available. I find that there is nothing like actually working at a site to start the process of working with it. The previous visit had fired quite a few ideas that I could now develop and work on.
Starting this piece was not hard. I’d sat here on a previous visit and the feeling of protection was inherent. I conceived the idea of making one large river of stone coming from the rock and twisting round to disappear into the ground. The background noise of the waves crashing on the shore below inspired the idea of water flowing and crashing down.
I knew that I wanted to create the impression that this river of stone appeared as if it poured from under the boulder I had selected. I started by making the bulk of the piece out of quite large rocks and then covering these with gradually smaller rocks. I chose all the rocks so that they had linearity to them to enhance the flow of the final piece. The start of the rock flow is about three feet across and two feet high, quite a large quantity of rock really. I had constructed about six feet of the flow when Nathaniel got back (about two hours).
He had not been too successful in his sketching exercise, mainly because of the wind but I think that he had a good time exploring the quarry. We sat down and had a quick lunch and I suggested that he could help me with the remains of the sculpture and he readily agreed.
The loose stone here is in great abundance and is the spoil from the quarrying activity in the past. It is very rough and un-weathered unlike the stones on a beach. This gives them a totally different quality. My idea was to make a very smooth, sinuous line, using these really rough rocks.
It took a further four hours to finish with the two of us working together. We didn’t see anybody else about until we had finally finished, and then one family went by. After that we saw quite a few people, but we had had the best part of the day to ourselves in peaceful tranquillity.