Cup-and- ring carvings....

I'm particularly intrigued by rock art in all its shape and forms -from cave paintings to carvings. They give us a glimpse into the past and how our ancestors lived. Sometimes you read a book and somebody has articulated your thoughts in a way that lingers in the memory.

 This passage is by David Malouf...An Imaginary Life...written in 'Rock Art & Prehistory of Atlantic Europe.( Routledge,New York).

"How can I give you any notion....of what earth was in its original bleakness,before we brought to it the order of industry, the terraces,fields,orchards,pastures, the irrigated gardens of the world we are making in  our own image?

Do you think of ...(the) land you now inhabit...as a place given you by the gods ready-made in all its placid beauty? It is not. It is a created place. If the gods are with you there,glowing out of a tree in some pasture or shaking their spirit over the pebbles of a brook in clear sunlight, in wells, in springs, in a stone that marks the edge of your legal right over a hillside; if the gods are there, it is because you have discovered them there, drawn them up out of your soul's need for them and dreamed them into the landscape to make it shine".

I've revisited spirals -inspired by the cup- and- ring carvings often found on passage graves and henge monuments.

It's a box canvas,layered with gesso, modelling paste and sand to add relief and texture. Layer upon layer of acrylic paint & ink was added,finishing with silver leaf to highlight.