"The Hermit of Carn Euny" 75cm x 106cm oil on board. After going to Carn Euny with sculptor Tom Leaper to have a play with his new drone (so ace, I really want one now), it would be rude not to do a painting about it. During the visit Tom regaled me with many a tale of the place; as a young chap he had lived next door to this ancient settlement. Apparently there was this old hermit that was living there and he tended the site, cutting the grass etc. Got me thinking about him and his simple existence (by which I definitely don't mean easy) amongst the plants and stones and all those before him that had looked after the place and called it home. An existence based on a more symbiotic relationship with Nature; symbolised within the painting by depicting the hermit as flora and stone (side profile on the right... the one with the big bushy beard) his vertebrae depicted as the path leading into Carn Euny's fogue... humans being as one within their environ as it were. First layer of paint was a graphic bird's eye view of the layout of Carn Euny (see below), still visible in part, two circles settled within the final painting represent nearby Caer Bran (hill fort) and Bartinney Castle (enclosure). Symbols of culture and folklore are spread around the painting too throughout the layering process.