insight into sketchbook making - geology 2024
Siccar Point to St Abbs Head
In 2024 my field trip research was primarily focused on the geology of the UK’s North East Coast. Reading ‘Notes From Deep Time’ by Helen Gordon to learn more about geology I became fascinated with the story of James Hutton (1726-1797), the founding father of geology, which led to my ‘pilgrimage’ to the famous Hutton’s Unconformity rock formation at Siccar Point
James Hutton’s visit to Siccar Point by boat in 1788 led to a profound change in the way the history of the Earth was understood. The rocks at Siccar Point were the defining proof of his revolutionary Theory on the Earth, what modern geology calls ‘deep time’ with the recognition of geological timing being millions of years of erosion, deposition, faulting and uplift, not centuries as was accepted then.
following an OS map, walking the cliffs, observing first hand the rock formation where the vertical lower unconformity ancient seabed Silurian Greywacke rock meets the younger horizontal upper unconformity Devonian red sandstone. Sitting with my sketchbook recording the textures, making colour studies with my homemade watercolour paints using the pigments I gathered from Cornwall - these rough sketches inform the pages of the notebooks that reference the field trip
Cocklawburn Beach
searching for crinoid fossils - a wide expanse of sandy beach with exposed bedrock and Lindisfarne on the far horizon - cliffs of sandstone with iron oxide & deposits of coal - the marks on the fabulous piece of driftwood will become stitch detail
Robin Hood’s Bay
Yorkshire Jurassic Coast - hunting for fossils & black jet
sandstone & mudstone cliffs rich in iron oxide giving the fabulous coloured inspirational ochre rock formations that will inform stitching, mark making lines & shapes
at work
a rare glimpse, I normally walk alone but my son was was with me for a day and took a few snaps of me studying the geology & making mudstone rubbings in Boogle Hole - being on the the coast we had to be mindful of the tide as this place is only accessible at low tide
