“Caer Bran's Neolithic Fern” 75cm x 106cm oil on board. Simple narrative on the enduring nature of Nature. Went for a walk up to Caer Bran with sculptor Tom Leaper, painter Sophie Fraser, my wife and Nettles (Tom’s dog, who instinctively knew the way). If you can go, do, because the views from this, principally Bronze Age hilltop enclosure, is spectacular and just a stone’s throw away from Carn Euny. Whilst sheltering from the drizzle (amongst the stones below the rampart) I noticed some fellow sheltering ferns. Got me thinking about this ancient plant, it lives, it spores and continues to survive. These ferns’ relatives were possibly around when this man made structure first came into existence and survived through all its iterations, certainly one of nature’s finest survivors. So I painted a painting about that fern, superimposing it over a plan of its home for the millennia. Secondly the fern, in Folklore, is a symbol of protection so using it in the painting seemed apt. Caer Bran “was purchased by Cornwall Heritage Trust in February 2022 after Historic England made the decision to add the nine-hectare site to its Heritage at Risk Register, due to a risk of bracken and scrub overgrowth. It was bought to protect the site from these issues as well as from possible development and intensive agricultural use. The purchase was made possible by a generous gift left to us by Miss Carlene Edith Harry in her will. Miss Harry was from West Penwith and had a keen interest in her local history. In November 2024, the site was removed from Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register due to Cornwall Heritage Trust’s successful interventions.” (Excerpt from the Cornwall Heritage website). So a massive thank you to Cornwall Heritage Trust Miss Harry and of course the humble fern whose enduring qualities and protection makes Caer Bran the magical place that it is…. and a great place to contemplate time/Nature and Man’s place in this world.