Friday, 22 April 2016

Resurrection Paintings by Jyoti Sahi

Resurrection by Jyoti Sahi

Jesus and the Samaritan
Woman at the Well : Jyoti Sahi
If you enjoyed these paintings during the "Come and see..." meditations, then you may be interested in this article I've just found on three resurrection paintings by Jyoti Sahi:

https://artandtheology.org/2016/03/30/three-resurrection-paintings-by-indian-artist-jyoti-sahi/#more-872

Tuesday, 12 April 2016

April Showers ?

What a day !

Rain pouring down...
roads & fields saturated overnight
making driving difficult
with deep, wide "rivers"
along roadsides...
but...
the most beautiful colours
of leaves just breaking through
 against dark oak tree trunks

Magnificent Magnolias
then brilliant warm sunshine...

cat basking in favorite place across studio threshold,
 at last the pool of water which flooded
through the skylight
 has dried out

...joyful birdsong...

 sudden thunder & lightning,
huge raindrops so loud
 the cat hides in a corner
 and mews at me,
as though
 its all my fault
 as large hailstones
 pelt down noisily
 bouncing right inside the doorway...

just as suddenly giving way
to deep blue sky

glorious sunshine
lighting up the magnolia tree next door...
Magnolias : Blue Dream  

 reminding me of paintings
 from this time last year,
 when the magnolia blossom
 basked in warm sunshine,
 suspended in stillness
 rather than suffering
 from this year's gales.







Saturday, 26 March 2016

Easter Day: Poetry & Painting : Emmaus



The Servant Girl at Emmaus
(A Painting by Velázquez)
She listens, listens, holding
her breath. Surely that voice
is his—the one
who had looked at her, once, across the crowd,
as no one ever had looked?
Had seen her? Had spoken as if to her?
Surely those hands were his,
taking the platter of bread from hers just now?
Hands he'd laid on the dying and made them well?
Surely that face—?
The man they'd crucified for sedition and blasphemy.
The man whose body disappeared from its tomb.
The man it was rumored now some women had seen this morning, alive?
Those who had brought this stranger home to their table
don't recognize yet with whom they sit.
But she in the kitchen, absently touching
           the wine jug she's to take in,
a young Black servant intently listening,
swings round and sees
the light around him
and is sure. 

Denise Levertov (1923–1997)
For Levertov's poetry, see Paul A. Lacey and Anne Dewey (editors), with an Introduction by Eavan Boland,The Collected Poems of Denise Levertov (New York: New Directions, 2013), 1063pp.

Friday, 25 March 2016

Good Friday

Following the service at St Bartholemew, Holland on sea, here are the two paintings so that you can see their colours: 
Chagall : White Crucifixion  1938
Chagall's White Crucifixion Revisited  2015 :

"Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing " Luke 23

  

Sunday, 7 February 2016

"Come and see..."

 A meditative series on St John's Gospel

 April 2016

 We shall be looking at Jesus' encounters with various different people though the eyes of the author of Johns Gospel, and the eyes of artists who have sometimes spent months or even years in meditation before communicating their insight with us...

Two Disciples a the Empty Tomb: Henry Ossawa Tanner   
Like Henry Tanner, who painted this defining moment for the author of John’s Gospel, 

"He saw & he believed”    John 20 v 1-8

When I first saw this painting it made me stop and think more deeply about Peter & the "other disciple"... Peter, as yet unsure what to make of the empty tomb, and his companion bathed in resurrection light.

At the end of his Gospel, this enigmatic "unknown disciple" tells us:
 “there were many other things Jesus did; if all were written down, the world itself, I suppose, would not hold all the books that would have to be written !”  [ John 21 v 25 ]

 I have only chosen a few out of hundreds of paintings for these meditations... 
...paintings that follow his meditative style of writing... 
...contemporary paintings from artists around the world, as well as more classical paintings...
...so that we might stop, look, and take time
 to meditate upon
 some of the events recorded in this Gospel

Interested ?

then please email for details :  janet@janetdriver.co.uk


we shall be a small housegroup, so early booking is essential !

Tuesday, 19 January 2016

"Come and see..."

 

Glimpses of Jesus in St John’s Gospel


With paintings by artists around the world
to give new insight and lead us into silence

by Jyoti Sahi...cp John 1 v 14

the more you look at some paintings, the more you see...
....and the same could be said of St John's Gospel...

especially if you look for hints of the portrait the author paints of Jesus

We shall spend time looking especially at Jesus' encounters with people like Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman at the well and several others, as recounted in John's Gospel and highlighted through the eyes of artists who communicate fresh insight from their own cultural background. 

This will not be an academic theological or art history discourse !

I will merely be like a prompter... giving you plenty of silence to look at each painting, with just a little background, quoting from the Gospel, and allowing time for meditation.

Five Thursday Evenings : April 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th & May 12th.
a small group at our home in Wivenhoe


please email: janet@janetdriver.co.uk  


if you are interested in booking a place: the number we can comfortably fit into our room is naturally limited...

 advance booking is essential.


added Jan 21st 2016:
something else you might be interested in...click here to read a BBC article about the Lampedusa Cross...

Sunday, 3 January 2016

At last a break in the downpour, and I rush out to check whether rain has come through the studio roof

 ...on the way I notice flecks of white on our young almond tree & can hardly believe its blossom already...

only the other day the pigeons were eating our crab-apples, as though it was still midwinter...



Now its Spring already ?

right at the beginning of the new year ?




Well, 2015 has been the warmest year globally.. and we have never known a warmer December...

Looking at continued reports of flooding, relentless as the rain, I just hope politicians live up to their Climate Change rhetoric: encouraging Solar & Renewable energy sources instead of killing them off.

 "...its do-able.."  [1]

 Yes... but only if we act fast...

and the devastating floods in the North of England & Scotland should give a strong incentive & warning kick-start !

...or...what indeed will we tell our grandchildren ?              

 [if you missed the speech to which I am referring...see 1 below]



[1] pm speech to the COP21 climate change summit in Paris.: click this link for full text:
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-to-the-cop21-summit-in-paris