Stephen Morris original artwork

"From the Cave", Peninnis, St Mary's, Isles of Scilly Artist: Stephen Morris
"Time" Exhibition at 44AD Gallery, Bath, UK, November 2021

Ink and watercolour painting on paper | Dimensions: approx 36 inches tall by 29 inches wide | £800 (GBP 800)

Rocks that look permanent to us, with our short lives, still change over time. We don't always notice. However, seeing the power of a stormy sea, pounding at rocks, makes it easier to comprehend. I painted this with a combination of my freehand ink technique to start, finishing with brushes using watercolour. I was in a cave, halfway up a cliff, in a gale. It was exciting, if a little hairy at times!

By chance I met photographer, Gary Morrisroe, who submitted a photo of me working on this painting into a competition for the prestigious project "Portrait of Humanity".
It was accepted and published in "Portrait of Humanity Vol 2".

To promote the project, the winning images were put on a screen which was attached to a balloon and sent into the upper atmosphere, to the edge of space. This was filmed, before returning safely to earth.

British Journal of Photography's 'Portrait of Humanity' in Space. This link (opens in a new tab) takes you to a You Tube video published by the British Journal of Photography, creator of the "Portrait of Humanity" series of books, featuring images from photographers all over the world. On the footage, you can see the curve of the earth, turning in space and time. It's nearly 42 minutes in length but watching it is quite hypnotic with all 200 photographs from Volume 2 of the series (including the one of Stephen painting this painting) in sequence on a video screen as it orbits the Earth on the edge of space

Humanity's time on this planet has only been a moment in comparison with the enormity of the life of stars.