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.