Janet Driver

Christ in the wilderness:paintings series by Stanley Spencer... During the 1930's - 40's the artist planned to paint a picture for each of the 40 days of Lent to be hung on the ceiling of his local church so that people could come in to use them for meditation right through Lent... someone has remarked that the large figure of Christ in billowing robes would perhaps appear like large clouds as people contemplated the paintings... although sketches/studies were made for 18 of these paintings, Spencer only managed to complete 8 of them, which are now in a gallery in Australia... however if you would like to spend time this Lent looking meditatively at these paintings, then you might like the small paperback book "Christ in the wilderness" by Stephen Cottrell, which includes copies of Spencer's paintings together with the new Archbishop of York's reflections. I will also try and put some of these paintings up on this blog so that you may use them for your own Lentern reflections if you wish...

Christ in the Wilderness : Stanley Spencer