Author: dominiquefcameron

The rhythm of the train on the tracks makes the pencil jump and jiggle. Fields and towns, and trees and sidings and bridges and the backsides of peoples houses all hunkered trampolines and slippy decking in the winter gloom. And church spires and power stations and motorways and rivers that steam bend round the edges of meadows all flat and sky filled. All there and then not. Drawing over the last tree and bend in the road, over the last warehouse and pylon and spray of graffiti, the layers of time and place reel more and more until my eyes sizzle. I pinch my mask around my nose as my glasses mist and the world dims in the fog.

Graving dock or dry dock – Peterhead.

In 1855 this red granite graving dock was built to meet the needs of the large Greenland whaling boats of Peterhead. By 1820 Petherhead and Hull were the foremost whaling ports in Britain. Designed by Thomas Stevenson, it was designed for steam driven pumps to empty the dock but instead two atmospheric pumps were installed each powered by six horses. It could be emptied in less than eight hours. It is still used today, although with the harbours ship lift in operation less frequently.

Delighted that this small work has been selsected for the Visual arts Scotland exhibiton at the RSA Edinburgh in January next year.

The river turns estuarine here. It runs slow and brown. Mudflats pewter sheen in the low sun. Bony reeds crackle. Oystercatchers, redshank, curlew, their songs echo across the hills. The tide is turning out there.