Sketchbook

A double page spread from my sketchbook

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Jake

A colour photograph of a piece of graffiti carved into a chalk wall. Weather worn letters spell out the name 'Jake '08'. The colours of the image are chalky white, creams and light tans.
Grafitti at Telscombe Cliffs

About 12 years ago Jake came to the beach at Telscombe Cliffs, just outside Brighton in the UK and carved their name into the chalk. I wonder what they are doing now?

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Dead Giant

A colour photo of a water eroded, chalk (I think) fossil. The fossil is roughly circular with large bites taken out of it's top half. In it's middle is a bowl shaped hole. The hole is filled with green tinged water and there are small plants and animals living in it. The surface of the fossil is covered with crustaceans. Barnacles appear small on the surface, so the fossil must be large. The fossil is surrounded by clear water and you can see pebbles on the seabed. The colours of the picture are close hues of grey, creamy chalk, ochre, and light green.
Fossil Ammonite

This is a picture of one of the ammonite fossils at Telscombe beach. There’s no reference for size in this image (what an oversight) but I can tell you the fossil is around 1 meter across. Apparently it is 100 million years old. Standing next to it, I was literally staring down at the seabed of an ocean so ancient that when this animal was alive there was no-one to name it, no-one to be aware of it’s vastness. But geologists have reconstructed the landmasses and waters of that period and they have given them names, from this long distant perspective in time. Perhaps I was standing on the seabed of the Tethys Ocean? My knowledge of geology isn’t good enough to know for sure. Here’s a list of ocean’s I would like to visit, but never can because they are lost to time (are the places in this list more alien than places that might be visited in deep space today?):

Panthalasa Super Ocean. Lapetus Ocean. Pannonian Sea. Rheic Ocean. (I like the sounds of these words and how they feel as they rolled out of my mouth when I speak them.)

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Treasure! What a find!

A colour photo of a hand holding a fossilised sea urchin. The fossil is around 2 or 3 times the size of the thumb that helps hold it up to the camera. It is grey in colour with 2 rows of small dimples that traverse the surface on opposite sides towards central point at the fossil's top. The surface of the fossil is mottled with different tones of chalky white and grey. The hand that holds it has smudges of chalk on it's fingers. The background is out of focus but looks like a rocky beach, green seaweed, dirty chalk.
Fossilised Sea Urchin

My partner found this beauty on a recent visit to the beach at Telscombe cliffs. This little beast lived out it’s quiet life right where it was found, around 85 million years ago. It stayed in one place for so long it literally became stone. Like something from a myth or fairy tale. Unspeakably beautiful.

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Telscombe Cliffs

A colour photograph of a rock strewn beach and chalk cliffs. It is a bright day, with a few light clouds stretching out towards the horizon. The sky is a vivid, light blue. The sea is crystal clear. It looks cold. Seaweed, a deep, dark green, cover chalk rocks which are densely packed across ground. The rocks have fallen from the high chalk cliffs that form a wall on the right hand side of the picture. The cliffs are a wide range of colours; greys, creamy whites, yellows, browns, ochre and dark greens. It looks wild, a bit dangerous but beautiful.
The beach at Telcombe Cliffs

This is an image I took of a beach just outside of my home town. It is only accessible by some very slippery steps that lead down from a concrete under cliff walk way. The beach is well known for being a likely stop to find fossils. It also has some of the largest ammonite fossils in Europe. It feels wild and ancient and I always feel like a time traveler when I am there.

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