1. Geneschism; 2. The Avenue
GENESCHISM
oil on canvas | 20" x 16" | 2002 | £125
BECKHAMPTON
AVENUE, WILTSHIRE
Beckhampton Avenue leads from Avebury to the Longstones
although the avenue itself can now only be termed
‘site of’. The Longstones, aka the Devil’s
Quoits or more personally Adam and Eve, are two solitary
figures in a field approaching Beckhampton itself. Eve is
probably the only remnant of the avenue, with Adam the
sole survivor of a cove. The latter fell over in 1911 and
was put back up incorrectly. Stukeley noted Beckhampton
Avenue in the mid 1700s, sketching a line of stones
leading west from Avebury for about a mile. Since then,
very little evidence has been uncovered and that which
has is often contradicted or disproved. However, this
does not deny its existence, merely this existence of
conclusive fact.
OS: SU.089.693 The Longstones are in a field near Avebury
Trusloe north from the A4.
I felt that as Adam & Eve are almost alone in the landscape it would be unnecessary to include much ephemeral detail; here, the sun is simply their spotlight.
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THE AVENUE
oil on board | 10" x 12" | 2001 | £NFS
WEST KENNET AVENUE, WILTSHIRE
Running between The Sanctuary on Overton Hill and the
southern entrance to Avebury, this is a 1½ mile avenue
of sarsen stones, many of which were buried by christian
devotees in fear of the devil or simply broken for
rebuilding. The stones are aligned in pairs according to
size, often thought to be male and female
representations, 45’ apart and with a 65’ gap
lengthwise. It appears not all of them were re-erected
the right way up in the mid 1900s.
OS: SU.103.697 - SU.118.680 From the A4 or Avebury
This image was reworked slightly in both 2003 & 2004 although it is still basically the original 2001 composition. Whilst I tend to remove modern trimmings from most compositions, they are still on the whole rendered in their present landscape. This image differs slightly in that I retained the modern fence to the left. With the Avenue being the ancient pathway from Sanctuary to Avebury, it seems typical in this day and age that the fence marks the edge of the tarmaced road which eventually slices through the Avenue at the horizon of this pic, yet from here the road is invisible and the ancient route is still predominant and lush. I did remove the cows though.