surprising hawthorn blossom lights up the garden ! ...an ordinary tree really comes into bloom as never before...

...as promised... here is the art trail map... go to the wivenhoe art trail website to see examples of work by various artists in the trail... and then with this map you can plan your route...enjoy this opportunity to visit these free galleries around WIvenhoe over the weekend of 25, 26, 27th JUne...

janet driver : acid-etched deep green leaded glass panel For several hours high winds of 56 - 60mph have been buffeting our trees around, making me feel almost sea-sick ! so I have chosen a still & peaceful image to follow after the rolling & rollicking branches... In fact this hanging plant I came across a few years ago when visiting a butterfly house near Kew Gardens was so still... merely turning very slowly as it hung down above a pool surrounded by exotic plants and beautiful butterflies...I remember the amazing stillness I felt as I sat beside the water quietly sketching this beautiful flower...

I hope that by choosing to focus on either my glass panel or oil painting you might be able to catch a glimpse of silence, stillness & thankful joy...

When lockdown is over... CELEBRATE BY VISITING THE ART TRAIL... CHOSE YOUR STUDIOS AND ENJOY FREE GALLERIES AROUND WIVENHOE... map to follow in a day or two...

photo by Margaret Howard

Our Crabapple tree is now covered in blossom... but where are all the bees this year ? We normally have lots of bumblebees all over this tree when its in blossom... I have only seen one bee this year!

Claude MOnet : Rouen Cathedral,sunlight... Monet sometimes painted the same subject showing the different effects of light & atmosphere ...His series on Rouen Cathedral shows how the changes in sunlight throughout the day can highlight different parts of the cathedral stonework and also bestow varying atmospheric colours...see wikipedia's page on Monet for a full range of his Rouen Cathedral series...

The Chapel at Trinity College, Kandy, Sri Lanka www.trinitycollegelk describes the amazing visionary drive with which this chapel was constructed in the 1920's...at a time when other churches in the island were being built in a more gothic european style>...great trouble was taken to revive the traditional & more Buddhist local architecture in building this beautiful chapel high up on the college hillside...each stone pillar is carved both at the base and near the upper level, as you can see in the detail below...

IN the main chapel there are three large murals by David Paynter...this one behind the pulpit is of the Good Samaritan... the artist had been a student at Trinity College before gaining a scholarship to the Royal Academy school of art, where he studied in the traditional Western style grounded in Classical & Renaissance Art and on returning to his family home in Sri Lanka he decided to use local models for these murals... in fact using students and teachers, together with a well-known and revered Bishop whose receeding back takes on the role of the priest in this Good Samaritan mural...