Stonehenge has held my interest since first viewing it approximately twenty years ago.  The reason I painted Stonehenge is hard to explain but mainly I was struck with it presence, its sheer silent magnitude and power, and I wished to express this in a painting.

Stonehenge is a three fold mystery.  The method of transportation of the large stones, the method of construction, and finally Stonehenge's true intended purpose, are to date are still in debate.

Stonehenge was constructed in three main stages.  Stage one was on Salisbury Plain England, in about the year 2800 B.C..  Then it consisted of two earth banks which encircled the outer perimeter of approximately 300 feet.  Set close inside the bank forming a circle are 56 almost equally spaced small pits.

The second stage took place about 2500 B.C., which brought in the blue stones from the Prescelly Mountains of South Whales.  The blue stones are the smaller of the two types of stone contained in the central structure.  They weigh up to seven tones and are named after their blue grey colour which is more pronounced when wet.  A central structure estimated to contain eighty two blue stones was partially set up, but now is almost totally obliterated.

In about 1550 B.C. stage three brought the construction of a hundred foot circle of thirty spaced rectangular uprights with continuous curved interlocking lintels.  These stones are a hard and durable silicified sandstone.  Inside this circle there was placed a horseshoe of five large "Trilithons" (a name invented by William Stukeley).

Two pairs of trilithons would have opposed each other, increasing in height from the open end of the horseshoe to the tallest single trilithon at the closed end, crating a massive stepped effect.  These trilithons would have towered above the outside ring, spectacular both from without and within.