THE acoustic quality of stone is well known to all associated with the quarries and now the ringing of the stone has been transformed to visual form by artist Robin Sewell.

This striking art form is displayed in a new series of large-scale drawings and paintings by Mr Sewell in the Learningstone Gallery at the old drill hall in Easton, Portland, in an exhibition which carries on from Wednesday to Sunday each week from 11am-4pm until September 30.

The artist lives and works in London and is a senior lecturer in Fine Art at the University for the Creative Arts South East at Canterbury.

The images are part of a science and community project funded by the university and the Mineral Industries Sustainable Technology Programme, and the island part of the project has been developed and supported by the Portland Sculpture and Quarry Trust.

The artist explained: "The works suggest scans, lunar photographs and other photomechanical processes and are evocative of epic geological terrains, metrological phenomenon and micro-genetic structures."

He has produced a version of the CymaScope which registers cymatic patterns by passing sound and vibration through a powder or liquid and the sound of Portland stone being struck is relayed through this to reveal a visual equivalent of the sound signature of an individual stone.

To the layman, this all sounds very technical but fundamentally it is the forces and materials of nature transformed by the hands of an artist into striking, beautiful images which both delight and intrigue the viewer and are well worth seeing.