#gavrinis

Gavrinis is a small island in the Gulf of Morbihan in Brittany, France. It contains the Gavrinis tomb, a Neolithic passage tomb built around 4200–4000 BC, making it one of the world's oldest surviving buildings. Stones inside the passage and chamber are covered in megalithic art. It is likened to other Neolithic passage tombs such as Barnenez in Brittany and Newgrange in Ireland.

Visiting the Cairn of Gavrinis, France

I am using pencils this time (and a bit of charcoal here and there). I then muck about with the colour balance once I have scanned the image to create the blue look.

“It is for its art that Gavrinis is famous. No fewer than twenty-three of it’s twenty-nine upright stones have been carved, not in single or isolated motifs but in a profuse series of compositions so that stone flows into stone or is mirrored by another in patterns engraved in low relief. The art is balanced in panels horizontally and vertically in symbols of which the main elements are concentric arcs and axes. These latter implements have splayed cutting edges like the big, prestige axes from the Carnac Mounds.” - A. Burl The last stone in my photos has 3 horizontal hand sized holes about 10 cm deep similar to kerbstone 52 at Newgrange (which was built supposedly around 300 years later).

Visiting the Cairn of Gavrinis, France

I am going to draw this one predominantly in pencil and then manipulate in Clip Studio into a monotone colour as you can see in the top image. There may be watercolours too. Let's see how we go.

Gavr’inis cairn (around 3.500 B.C.), Île de Gavrinis, Breizh 2017.