Stunning geological images are now available for purchase with a special discount for Fellows, writes Dwain Eldred
Geoscientist Online 1 April 2009
Most geologists will doubtless remember the first time they gazed down a microscope at a thin section and marvelled at nature’s hidden display of colour and texture. However, three years of undergraduate petrology, with its classification schemes and examinations, is bound to install a certain level of professional detachment towards the more aesthetic aspects of rocks and minerals. The fact that rocks are studied for practical reasons, not just because they are nice to look at close-up, means that most people outside the profession have absolutely no idea of their hidden beauty. It sometimes takes someone from outside one’s own discipline to point out the obvious- seen close-up rocks and minerals, even those common ones like quartz and tourmaline that working geologist often take for granted, can be shockingly beautiful.
Richard Weston, professor of Architecture at Cardiff University, has dedicated a considerable portion of this time and energy outside of his day job, building up what could be the world’s largest private collection of rock and mineral images. The degree and care to which Richard has sectioned and imaged the collection is quite remarkable and the results, reminiscent of sunsets, waves on a beach, desert vistas and traditional paintings of Chinese landscape, are both vivid and breathtaking.
His work has been exhibited previously at the National Botanic Gardens, Wales, Oxford University Museum of Natural History, and in collaboration with the BBC was commissioned by the United National to produce a spectacular woven wall hanging to commemorate International Year of Planet Earth.
Together with colleagues, Richard has set up a company, Earth Images, that sells high quality fine art prints of his work online (see
www.earth.uk.net). As well as traditional prints, the images can also been transferred to fabrics and ceramics. A positive outcome of all this is a popularisation of geology and the wider earth sciences to non-scientific audiences.
Special offer!
Earth Images is offering a 10% discount to Fellows who wish to purchase a print, with a further 10% of the purchase price donated to the Society. Enter code G102 when you reach the basket stage of the online purchase.