I have been printing this body of work on original pages from 19thC geology textbooks. During an artist residency in Portugal in 2015, I was given the unusual access of working next to the engineers and quarrymen. Since then I have returned 5 times, both to make new pictures and mount an exhibition. In addition to learning something of the history and method of marble extraction and finishing, I have been incorporating past personal experiences into my working method in making this series. As a teenager I assisted a geologist in measuring the River Tweed (Scotland-England border) mineral deposits. This current artwork is the first time I have utilized that experience. Indeed, it was only in recent years that I learned of the importance of the area I grew up in to the origins of geology as a science, with its beginnings at Siccar Point, Berwickshire, a landscape I had drawn and painted in my youth.