Scribbled Sunrise Spectacle

Saturday 18th September 2010





9.20am
Well I’ll have to go home. Run out of paper. Had to use a discarded sketch to draw my last sketch. The sunrise was a real spectacle. Bit overwhelming and beyond the limitations of me and the pastels. But I had a scribble anyway. So I’d better pack away before I start thinking how sad it is to be going. Only three more weeks till I return. I’ll try to stay a little longer next time.

11.30am
Just stopped as I was driving away long this narrow lane to let traffic by and was compelled to write –
this place is very special.
Very special. I’m glad I had to stop so I could note this. Very special.
In a city, in the metropolis people say ‘you can be anonymous’. Here – in isolation I can be mySELF.

And It All Went Pink Over GY!

Friday 17th September 2010



8.20am
It is a beautiful day. Not a cloud in the sky. A bit of haze to the horizon but the cloud that so strongly featured in the sketches at sunrise has been burned out white now. I can feel the suns warmth on my face. Mmm. Particularly good because there is such a strong off shore wind. I know it is off shore because I can see spray from the waves from the action of the wind. It appears to be trying to push the waves back but that pull from the old moon is too strong.

...like that!

11am
Am not alone! Don’t worry I’m not having one of my mystical funny turns! The flying ants are gone. Probably dead as there’s no way out apart from a couple of cracks in the glass as the desiccated pigeon up in the rafters is proof. This time I’m sharing the lighthouse with tiny red spiders. Not ‘mite’ the peril of tomato growers. Bigger and cuter than those! And funny as they appear very determined and in a hurry all the time. I think to children they’d be known as money spiders. Hope so.

The suns still shining. Oo good there’s a bit of cloud gathering.




It's all gone pink over GY!

7.37pm
And it’s gone. Five minutes earlier was singingthe R & B masterpiece (joke) ‘This is why we do it’! And now it’s gone all gone! The visual feast is over.

7.45pm
I’m quite overwhelmed! Just had five minutes just sitting. And breathing! I can breathe again now it’s all over! That was the best yet!

11.30pm
This cold clear night allowed me to observe the moon three quarters full. And it’s trajectory is really flat. It has moved along the points of the compass in my circular room from S to SW without hardly dropping. And it never reached high in the sky. About 45 degrees at it’s zenith.

Shame On Me!

Thursday 16th September 2010
10.25pm I’m ashamed! I know virtually nothing about the cycles of the moon. Been sat here more than half an hour and the yellow half moon plus a day – just seems to be sat there in the sky. I still can’t decide whether it’s setting or rising. Just checked –it’s just east of a south westerly position so I guess it’s setting. But it hardly seems to be moving. Not like the rising moon I watched rising at my last visit which seemed to have shifted up every time I looked. Perhaps the trajectory is different at different stages of it’s cycle. This must be the case. I do know that the full moon rises when the sun sets and the full moon sets at sun rise. Though I must confess that I only discovered this when thinking about doing this residency. So in the mid winter when the nights are longest the moons night journey across the sky will take double the time it would in the mid summer. I love that the pattern is reverse of the sun.

But unlike the sun which tracks back and forth along the horizon steadily throughout the year I suspect the moon moves back and forth but over a period of one month which of course is the cycle of the moon.

I’ve got it. This moon, tonights moon is travelling across the sky on a very gentle angle. It doesn’t seem to be dropping because it’s travelling on only about a 20 degree angle. It’s shifting across the sky quickly but appears to gain nor lose height. The full moon I saw setting at the last visit seemed to drop in minutes.

Soon, in a couple of months I’ll have more freedom to get here to the lighthouse more frequently and I’ll be able to observe these patterns more closely I hope.
I’m pooped. Got to go bed.