Ancient Stones

Ever since we went to Carnac in Brittany I have been obsessed with ancient monoliths and Stone Age sites.  I took many photographs at the time and these have been brewing away in my subconscious.  I made a tiny photobook of the trip we made to Quiberon and the surrounding area and occasionally I pull this little treasure out to look at the images. 

Recently we were given a project in my painting class following the popularity of the book 50 Shades of Grey - notably unread by all of us!!!.  I immediately thought of my "stones" as a suitable subject.  Being a colourist it was not possible to keep to the brief of simple shades of grey, but as it was only meant to be a starting point, this was not a problem.

My little book of photos has proved to be an invaluable source of material.  Probably giving me enough inspiration for at least the next six months, or more.  I've produced 3 paintings so far this year from this subject matter and I still have at least another three in mind from further images.

The three images below may not represent the final versions of the paintings but they are at least at an advanced stage of completion.  They are all executed in acrylic paint on canvas ~50cm x 40cm. 

This has been an exciting departure from the completely abstract phase I've been going through recently.  No doubt I'll be returning to this in the future, but I'm still enjoying the figurative abstract interpretation of these ancient monuments, at least for the time being.