Cloudy morning with omphalos 27 March 2020

Each day I instinctively select an object to paint not knowing quite why. The domed omphalos or navel stone is wound with soft wool, bound to make it like a necklace around the stone. It used to stand at Delphi in Greece, to indicate that Apollo, god of reason and the arts, had designated that site as a navel of the world. I bought the little plaster simulacrum in Athens. Perhaps the coast of the Illawarra is another point of grounding, as the Dharrawal people might suggest. This time of no travel (the usual situation for most people in the world) is a good time to reflect on wonders I have seen. 

Diana Wood Conroy, 'Cloudy morning with omphalos', watercolour on Arches paper, 15 x 21 cm, 27 March 2020