Today being Maunday Thursday, so tomorrow the crucial elements of our faith play out their pathway.

A few years ago just as the covid drama was unfolding, Liz and myself were in Jerusalem, we visited the tomb garden. Whether or not the tomb in this garden is the correct one, is immaterial and of little importance. What matters most, is the stopping, thinking and realisation of the amazing consequences of Jesus' actions in and around this place.

The late morning was pleasantly warm, bright and sunny; too many visitors were in the garden, but that didn't matter; being there was what mattered.. Seeing and being where Jesus rose was astounding, the presence and realisation, sent a shiver of thanks down my spine.

As I said earlier too many people were present in the garden; thankfully the pen allows the omission of these masses. It was so special standing at the top of the stairs looking down towards the tomb and  sketching. Special yes, holy yes, thankfully yes; amazing certainly.

Have a lovely blessed Easter.

A slightly unusual and fun image today.

Last night I was invited to an event which amongst other things had a craft section included in the evening. Those of you who know me will remember that I love the arts and although I am not really into crafting, I respect it and see it as a creative worthwhile form of expression. I digress, then the nightmare happened.

The leader of the evening said from the rostrum, Duncan you are an artist will you judge the work for us. The situation where it is very easy to loose friends. was thrown at me, with no get out clause.. So think fast. Many of the painted Easter eggs really were rather good. So I wandered round talking to the crafters, offering appropriate encouragement and getting to understand what was happening.

As I said earlier many of them were rather good. But one stood out! A lady was having great fun decorating an awful egg and it was bad, ever so bad, but she was laughing and having a great time. I can not imagine an egg being done in any way worse.

So at the judging talk I praised the many excellent eggs, there really were several really good ones produced. Then I talked about the awful egg, everybody was laughing. I explained the intentions of the crafter, the rather rude symbolise drawn on the egg and a bit more; it was good fun and the crafter of this egg was laughing the most, with her mates joining in. With everybody's agreement she got first prise.

The point of this story-----, enjoy your art, it doesn't need to be clever.

By the way, painting eggs like this is an Orthodox Church tradition, this was fully explained during the evening. This also resulted in the end with much laughter, whist understanding the serious side of Easter.

Duncan.

 

 

Well Liz and myself have just returned from another brief stay in Sidmouth. The weather was rather mixed, as a result a lot of the time was spent reading and painting in the hotel; however we needed to relax, so that was not a bad thing. Each day we did brave the elements and go out; one of those days was to Lyme Regis. As you can see from the sky it was a lovely day, the sun shone brilliantly. the down side was the wind, it blew furiously. I tried to paint but my drawing board was like the sail on a yacht, it was impossible; the solution was to retreat to a pub, have a coffee and do my drawing over the afore mentioned coffee in about ten minuets. Not a great piece of art, but it caught the atmosphere, was good fun and the landlord loved me painting in his hostelry.

Working artists are usually treated with great respect and warmly welcomed, so have a go.

People are going round and saying something like, "Its cold and damp and miserable": well yes, some of that may be true; but this season also has its gems. At Hatchlands a few days ago we saw the above crab apples; yesterday at Trigs road roundabout, I saw a red admiral butterfly and this morning at Polseden Lacey we saw a greater spotted woodpecker, a close up of a red kite and the leaves on the brambles were at places an amazing bright red. Nature can surprise us with its beauty at any time of the year.

By the way this morning was not at all cold, damp or miserable; we walked to Play Pits and had a lovely picnic of brie cheese with cranberry sauce on bread rolls, followed by a banana and an orange, this was washed down with a good coffee. Altogether a rather lovely day out.

Well must stop writing as there is some ink work to do.

Duncan

 

Well life seems to get ever busier by the day. We have just had a marvelous weekend up in Sheffield, where we saw 5 of our God children, 1 great God son, 2 grandchildren, 2 sons and 1 daughter in law; plus many friends, adding all that up came to the total of a superbly hectic and enjoyable weekend. Returning home on the Tuesday was hindered by the M1 being closed because of an overturned lorry. So we drove down through the midlands on the compass; it was a lovely drive through small towns and countryside which neither of us have seen before. If it took a little longer to get home, it was a super enjoyable adventure.

 The above image and this new current project which i am working on.

The work on this project, continuing the tree work but in a larger format is going very well. The whole process being slower and more time consuming does produce fresh problems, such as. The composition taking much longer to appear, so staying on and working at the image is quite challenging from a fortitude point of view, as the work just does not seem to be working until many hours of hard work have been put into it. then after many hours suddenly it seems to come together. The hard bit is holding in my mind what the final outcome will be in my mind and just plodding, knowing that you are doing the right thing, until at last it works. The above image took, in am under estimation in excess of fifty hours; with the composition and work only starting to work during the last five or six hours. The end result is very satisfying and this project is certainly going ahead with full steam.

 

This morning I am sharing with you one of my favorite places on earth. It is the view of Stannage Edge, from the carpark above Ringinglow, on the Sheffield side of the Peak District. I have sat painting this view many times, in all weathers and in all of the four seasons. It is an oil pastel and hangs above my desk in my studio, I love it.

I was talking the other day about larger ink works; well the first one has been completed and it is an encouraging start to the project. Scanning to make the image digital is another problem as I have an excellent scanner, which sadly A4 sized and not A3 plus; however that is being worked on, my challenge for the week; lets see what transpires.

Another work in the ongoing tree project this morning, but this one is with a difference. My ink work is getting larger and this one is on A3 sized paper, the image being 16 inches by 9; which for a detailed ink work is massive in the amount of work involved; I did not count the hours it took to produce. For technical reasons the bigger the ink work gets, so, fresh unexpected problems keep appearing. But the process so far has worked and this piece has left a good feeling upon completion. Now this drawing was a step up towards an aim of mine which is to produce ink work twice that size!! Which I am now with trepidation undertaking. So lets see what happens. 

My art group at St Andrews restarts this Thursday at 1 pm after the Christmas break. Remember there is no charge, it is a good place to meet people, learn from one another and is a very pleasant and convivial art centered group. There are spare places in the group.