38.5 cm (w) x 55 cm (h), conté and pastels on acid-free coloured-ground ‘Canson’ paper.
Date produced: October 2000

Drawn on-site at the Hallett Cove Conservation Park, South Australia (a fabulous place to spend time). This was produced over 3 trips to the park, and shows the ‘wave-cut’ layers of rocks below the cliffs. Three pigeons fly out above the main cliffs, in the sunshine. Quite a few pigeons nest among the cliffs here.

While thinking about the ages of the rocks at the park, indicated on signs put up throughout, it felt special to contemplate that many of these rocks formed more than 600 million years ago, a point in time before when most modern life forms developed on our planet. Some of these rocks may have formed when the atmosphere was very different to the way it is now - without the same level of oxygen. These rocks are lying in the sun now, ‘witnessing life’ on this day.

Much of the park feels as if it’s from a more primitive world, and yet, a world that is much more real and open than many of the places I spend most of my time in; Hallett Cove Conservation Park always feels refreshing to my very being.