A Calming Stone,A Blank Canvas Happening at Turner Contemporary.

Blank Canvas organized a happening at Turner Contemporary last week, called A Calming Stone, as part of the closing day events for their exhibition.
We collected stones and pebbles from local beaches and arranged then in the gallery on one of the benches, over spilling to the floor.

The simple act of arranging them in size, colour and shape, turned an ordinary collection of random stones into something much more interesting and attractive.

Our plan was to invite visitors to select a stone, or rather let a stone select them, they could take their stone with them as they walked around the gallery and then return the stone to a sculpture on the floor, or select a stone and add it to the sculpture straight away.

We also encouraged visitors to think about why they chose their stone and if they wanted to, allow the stone to absorb any thoughts they wanted to leave behind.

We were returning all the stones and pebbles to the sea, and any thoughts left in the stones would be washed away in the sea.


Well a lot of visitors were interested in the event, talked about their choice of stones, love of collecting or memories of collecting from their childhood.

For some, the stones called to them straight away, others took their time. Visitors described things such as the texture of their stone,the patterns and suggested images they could see on the stone, the noise it made, what it reminded them of and qualities like love.

 Some took their stones away with them as they explored the gallery and became quite attached to them. There is something very tactile and soothing about holding a stone or a pebble.

Everyone however wanted to be part of what was a ritual in someways, and added their stone to the growing sculpture on the floor. We had envisaged a spiral but went with what the visitors co created.

After the event we collected all the stones and pebbles together and all took some of them with us to return them to the sea.

Visit to Avebury

I spent a lovely few days in Avebury, Wiltshire, with Ruth. We took the scenic route along the South Downs to Winchester, then up to Marlborough and then on to Avebury.

Beautiful countryside  all along the route, rolling hills and fields, avenues of trees and pretty little villages. I realized that I hadn't spent much time recently in the country and it felt like I was drinking in refreshment and happiness.

We were staying in Avebury it's self at Manor Farm. The village is very small, with a pub, community shop and post office and another shop selling books and craft and crystals.

It is also much smaller than it was before Alexander Keiller bought Avebury in 1934. He knocked down buildings as they became empty, to clear space for the stone circles. The National Trust also followed suit till the 1960's.

Keiller was though responsible for excavating the buried stones, raising them again and setting concrete markers where he thought other stones would have been. Making Avebury the  World Heritage site it is today. With the archaeologist foreman, William Young, Keiller also, dug down into the ditch around the site and explored the area, uncovering items now in the museum.

I really enjoyed my time around the stones, drawing and taking photographs. We also visited the West Kennet long barrow on top of a chalk ridge overlooking Silbury Hill.

I was struck by the positive energy of the site and feeling of connection to the landscape.
And I will be working on more art works from my time there.