Painting Structure 12 and Structure 1…
August 7, 2018
And so the painting grew each day using my favourite bits from Structure 12 and in the middle bit, Structure 1. I found that the hearth of Structure 1 was gorgeous in colour after its winter sleep under tyres and black plastic. From the edge of the trench, it appeared half had been dug out revealing layers of colours rich in amber, saffron, rust, and maroon.
I purposely left one side of the hearth out of the painting so that those inner hearth colours could run freely into the center floor-like area of the painting. Below that I reproduced larger than life, those wonderful repeated triangular designs from the triangular stone found in 2013. https://www.scotsman.com/…/5-000-year-old-neolithic-art-found-in-orkney-dig-1-30
But back to the top where I exaggerated the east entrance of Structure 12, I was caught by the red and white hazard tape wrapped around two triangular shaped stones one of which appeared to be propped up. Only recently have I recognized their greater meaning….”If you move me, all will fall!” Somehow, accenting that in the painting seems oddly appropriate to the overwhelming cause of the dig as well as the possible reasons for its purposeful and ritual closing thousands of years ago.
On and around and beside many of the corners of the stones I have used my trusty stone tool to incise as many marks that appealed to me.
I have it from Dr, Antonia Thomas ( author Art and Architecture in Neolithic Orkney http://www.archaeopress.com/public/displayProductDetail.asp?id=%7BA9758D28-EB53-4F53-AE25-533206C17D44%7D ) , that they appear and disappear just like all the originals. The light just has to be right. I have also painted on some “pecked” versions of the rounded shape or horner spiral or “heart of Smerquoy”
around and about since these marks were also discovered here on the dig this season.