Sunset from my first chosen viewpoint, a few days before the summer solstice 2019
The Solstice Project is part of a new art project I am embarking on, involving explorations and interactions in the bush, discoveries and findings, surprises and setbacks, all of which I plan to develop into an exciting body of studio artworks that will stem from the bushland ones.
The idea of the solstice project is to vaguely follow the precedents of ancient cultures in marking the arrival or departure of the sun on significant dates. I chose the summer solstice because our hot, dry weather in 2019 made the departure of the sun (or at least the longest day of the year) a date to be anticipated just as the early people of the cold regions of the northern hemisphere marked the return of the sun on the winter solstice.
I chose the high point on our property from which to view the solar event. It was great for viewing the sunset (see photo above), but the sunrise was not visible from this point due to trees.
This photo shows an early morning view from the top rock. The white quartz marks my viewing point and the small stone the line to the radio tower. I hoped that the view to the radio tower on the distant hill, seen through the forked tree, would be the point of sunrise. But it wasn't.
This was a setback. Luckily there were still several days remaining until the solstice, so I selected another location, which I call Middle Rock. From here the sun can be seen both rising from the eastern hills and disappearing over the western ones.
Sunrise from Middle Rock on the day before the summer solstice, 21st December 2019
Unfortunately (and here is one of the challenges of this project), on the actual solstice the sunrise was obscured by bushfire smoke. It's not worth posting a photo taken on that morning. Sunset was good though:
Sighting rock and sunset, summer solstice 2019 from Middle Rock
Then came a period of contemplation. It's all very well to point stones at the sun on certain dates, but what next? And what artworks of an indoor nature might come from this?
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