Original artwork description:

Before I became an artist I was an archaeologist and I still have a deep and abiding love for the monuments and structures of Neolithic Europe, especially those found in the UK, so I've embarked on a series of monoprints depicting these enigmatic landscape features.

The Devil's Den is a dolmen burial chamber on Fyfield Hill near Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. The chamber is part of a neolithic passage grave on Fyfield Down. Two standing stones, a capstone and two fallen stones are all that remain of what was the entrance to a long mound, described in the 1920s as being around 230 ft long (70 metres). The capstone is believed to weigh 17 tons. The burial chamber was reconstructed in 1921.
The dolmen was named after the devil, along with many other prehistoric remains, after the coming of Christianity. A local tradition said that if water was poured into hollows on the capstone, a demon would come in the night and drink it.

There is no way to access this site by car. The closest you can get is to park in Fyfield off the A4, or head up toward Manton House via Downs Lane, where there is a car park at 51°25'43.2"N 1°46'17.9"W.

This artwork has been created using a monoprint process created by German artist Paul Klee where oil paint (black, in this case) is painted onto one side of a piece of paper which is then carefully placed, paint-side down, onto a piece of watercolour paper and the image required is drawn onto the unpainted side, thereby transferring black lines onto the watercolour paper. The first sheet is removed and the image can then be painted over using watercolours, with the black oil-painted lines acting as a resist. Due to the nature of the process, small black marks and smudges are frequently accidentally transferred but this, together with the watercolour painting, only highlights the individual nature of each ‘print’. While it is quite possible to produce the image again, each one will be different as no two paintings will ever be identical.

This image is transferred/outlined with Winsor & Newton oil paint and then painted with Winsor & Newton Professional watercolours onto 300gsm/140lb Hot Pressed Daler-Rowney Aquafine Smooth watercolour paper.

DELIVERY INFORMATION
In order to avoid trips to the Post Office, I shall be arranging for delivery to be via courier (not Hermes!) and shipping charges will reflect this. As prices will vary depending on the purchaser's location, if the actual shipping price is less than that charged, I will refund the difference. I am happy to arrange collection.

The high cost of shipping from the UK to the USA is, unfortunately, out of my hands and I won't cut corners by using the cheapest courier or not having insurance as that will just be tempting fate!

IMPORTANT - Rather sadly I've decided that, following Brexit, I can no longer sell my artwork to purchasers in the EU. The customs/VAT regulations are an absolute nightmare and I don't want to risk purchasers having to fork out a lot of unforeseen extra money when taking delivery, and even if I agree to pay Customs and VAT upfront before sending out, the red tape involved just looks horrendous.

I will still be selling to customers outside the EU as there's been no changes there so everything remains the same. My apologies, all I can say is that I voted to remain.

For international buyers please note that import duties, taxes and charges are not included in the price of this artwork or shipping costs. These charges are the buyer's responsibility.

Materials used:

oil paint, watercolours

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