Status of Original Painting – Private Collection

Size: 10 x 20 inches

Medium: Watercolour on 300 lb d’Arches

Description:
My visit to Stonehenge in 1993 was memorable – there’s something about this 5,000 year-old man-made structure that puts comparatively short North American history into sharp perspective. How were those massive rocks cut, transported great distances, and lifted into place? What was its purpose – Celestial clock? Druid altar? Focus of mystical powers? All three?

Ever since that visit, I’d been determined to do a painting from the photos that I’d taken, and now seemed as good a time as any for a change of pace from the Newfoundland scenes. I have other photos from my travels around the globe that will eventually become paintings, too.

I chose not to do the typical sunrise/sunset scenes of Stonehenge, but instead I wanted to convey moodiness or a sense of gathering powers in the sky. Depicting it that way was inspired in part by a recent re-reading of Roger Zelazny’s The Last Defender of Camelot, a story in which Merlin uses Stonehenge as a powerbase – and only Sir Launcelot remains to defeat him.