What inspired me?
Dolomite Limestone
 
Kimmeridge Bay is renowned for its geology and fossils, and is home to the formation known as Kimmeridge Clay. 
 
The cliffs are alternating layers of mudstones and bituminous shales, with limestone platforms and ledges that project jaggedly out from the cliff.
 
The deposit stretches from Dorset up to the North Sea, and is the major source rock for oil fields in the North Sea.
 
At ground level, there are pavements of rock. Repeatedly scoured by the tides, this base platform has been shaped into wide, flat slabs, each divided into fragments by deep grooves. This is dolomitic limestone - blue-grey in colour, but yellow or reddish where the iron content is high.
 
It was this colour scheme and pattern that inspired the painting. Initially I was looking for fossils, but soon became distracted by the limestone.
 
This is the type of pattern that delights me: apparently random, but as you look you start to see rhythms within it. Add textures, and colours that only partially mask each other, and inspiration flows.