Painting Like a Cave Woman on a Frigid Winter's Day

 It is now January 14, 2022 - how very sci-fi that date looks!

These be modern times, yet this gal is doing what she can to once again channel her “inner-cave-woman”.  

I am in my studio on the bay in the fabulous cultural hub known as the Gore Bay Harbour Centre.  It is a deep chill kind of day (-24ºC ) with a stiff northeast wind that bites at exposed flesh.  So one bulks up with insulative clothing when out and about and since we have full sun today there is reason to whistle a happy tune as well. 

Today's view outside the Ravenseyrie Studio & Art Gallery
Gore Bay, Ontario / Manitoulin Island

Inside, things are not exactly toasty warm with that persistent wind buffeting this old ship of a building, but with a shawl over my shoulders and some hot tea in my belly, the studio is pleasant and inviting enough, methinks for the muse to perhaps come and grant me some creative energy.

The "library" sector of my working studio

I’ve got my rock painting station all set up and ready to begin.  It took me a little bit of time to select which of my many (many!) rock "canvases" I've brought back from the shoreline of our Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve, but one with some marvellous lichen colonizing it summoned me.  So I put it in a little easel and it did not take long for it to show me what it wanted painted upon it.

The selected rock "canvas" is on the right, waiting to be painted

Lichen, detail

With my little "talisman" of Picasso looking on, things seem especially pregnant with potential.

La Mirada Fuerte/Picasso's Eyes
Original Rock Painting by Lynne Gerard

So, let’s not waste any more - time…let’s go!

The natural contours of the rock very quickly suggested to me the image of our stallion, Altamiro, with his head lifted as if looking at the stars in the sky.  

I did a brief ink study in my sketchbook and then using the Paleolithic-style paint I make from wood charcoal, gum arabic and water, I did a preliminary sketch on the surface of the rock.

Preliminary sketches

Yep!  I could tell this image was going to please the "spirit of the rock" and me as well, so I added some further touches of paint, this time using a light grey I make from lakeshore clay, gum arabic and water.

With just a few strokes and the natural features of the rock respected, the first rock painting for 2022 by Lynne Gerard has come into being.

"Stargazing" Original Paleolithic-style Rock Painting by Lynne Gerard

"In Paleolithic animal imagery as a whole, horses are the most frequently represented animals.  In some places they are outnumbered by bison (in the Ariège Pyrenees), does (in Cantabrian Spain) and mammoths (Rouffignac), but regardless of the period, region or techniques used, the horse is always noticeably present, and embodies a range of visual imagery and meanings."  --Jean Clottes, CAVE ART, Phaidon, 2008

Many thanks to the sunny, frigid day, to the spectacular rock "canvas", the wee Picasso talisman, a little tipple of AlpenBitter#7 and the spirit of ancient equines for this first rock painting of the New Year.