Annunciation

She modestly draws back and responds, "ECCE ANCILLA DÑI." or "Behold the handmaiden of the Lord".

"Van Eyck is considered one of the greatest painters of any period. Advances in oil techniques helped him paint the physical world in minute detail and with a degree of realism never before possible. It was said he knew fabrics like a weaver, buildings like an architect, and plants like a botanist. Here it is hard to believe that the angel's gleaming brocade is yellow pigment, not true gold, "woven" with brushstrokes, not threads.


In this painting Gabriel announces to Mary that she will bear the son of God. She modestly draws back and responds, "Behold the handmaiden of the Lord." Her words are printed upside down for the Lord above to see. The Holy Spirit descends to her on seven rays of light. This is the moment God's plan for salvation is set in motion. Through Christ's human incarnation the old era of the Law is transformed into a new era of Grace.


Almost every element in the painting contributes to this theme. The architecture moves from older, round Romanesque forms to pointed Gothic arches. In the floor tiles, scenes from the Old Testament prefigure New Testament events; David's slaying of Goliath, for example, fore tends Christ's triumph over the devil. The single top window, where Jehovah stands, contrasts the triple windows below, which suggest the Christian trinity. Even Mary's overlarge figure inside the chapel operates symbolically to underscore her identification with the Church. The lilies beside her refer to her purity."

-from The National Gallery of Art



Van Eyck is one of my favorite painters, not only for his command of the paint and his magnificent attention to detail, but also for his imagery and symbolism. To view one of his paintings is to peel an onion, to contemplate each layer respectively. The more you learn about the symbolic nature of the objects and the setting the artist chose, the more beauty is revealed. My favorite painting by Van Eyck is The Arnolfini Wedding, which is exhibited at the National Gallery of London.



He, and his contemporary Northern European artists, are credited with introducing and perfecting painting with oils at a time when the Italian Renaissance artists were dedicated to fresco techniques. It is amazing the difference between the art of northern and southern Europe during this time. the contributions by both are amazing, yet so different in character.



Back to the Annunciation, if you wish to delve more deeply into the symbolism Van Eyck incorporated into this painting, may I suggest this site: Annunciation at Wikipedia



There are so many beautiful pieces of religious themed art from the past and present, but at Christmas time, or more properly Advent, with its focus on Mary and Joseph and their struggles as the awaited birth approaches, this particular painting touches me. The holiness and quietude of the scene enables me to reflect on the approaching miracle. The miracle of that one, world-changing birth in Bethlehem.

Nature's Simple Beauty

I love rocks. Especially beach rocks, rounded by the ebb and flow of the sea. Polished, smooth. I collect rocks. I paint pictures of rocks. I have decorative rocks in my garden. I have a bag full of rocks we collected several years ago on a beach in Cape Breton, Canada, a most magical place.

The beach in Cape Breton. It just cries out to rock hounds doesn't it?

So, this bag of rocks finally became a part of my world. They are no longer relegated to the shelf in the basement.

I sorted out several sizes and then gave them a light coat of clear nail polish. Now they look like they do when you are at the beach and the rocks are damp and their colors are heightened.

Then, I took a tray, and a bag of preserved moss, and some pine needles collected from the neighbor's trees across the street, and three candles I bought on clearance at the craft store, and I arranged them into a miniature wonderland.

The candle light makes the rocks sing.
Oh, that I was small enough to walk around this little rock garden and leap from stone to stone.

Nature's simple beauty

So quick and so easy. Bring some nature inside this holiday season. It will bring joy to your heart and peace to your soul.

Diversions

Never mind that you we should be shopping. Yes, I know, less than a month of shopping days left. Then there's wrapping and decorating and baking. All this is, of course, in addition to the usual ponderous slew of daily necessities. Never mind all that. We need fun, diversion; we need brain food.


If your brain needs feeding go here:

Free Rice

You can feed your brain and feed others at the same time.

Or, if your creativity needs nourishing go here:

Snow Days

If you click on Find-a-Flake and type percytruffle into the box you will find the flakes I made last year. Let me know if you make any and what your username is so I can ooh and ahh over your flakes!

And, if your soul needs satiating go here:

Advent Calendar

Enjoy your holiday season. Go forth and bake, decorate, and shop. Just don't forget to refresh!

Thanksgiving blessings to everyone!

Preparations

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, a day to spend with loved ones thankful of all our blessings, and of course thankful for the food. My sister, Kathy is hostess this year. She is a wonderful cook. I learned practically everything I know about cooking from either her or our mom. The usual holiday feast will be waiting for us tomorrow as we venture over the river and through...oops, I mean over the highway and through the towns. As my contribution to the feast I have been asked to bring pies. Guess what I've been up to this morning?

A messy cook is a happy cook I've always said. Are you neat or messy in the kitchen? Do you clean and wash dishes as you go or do they pile up until the end? I'm somewhere in between but closer to the latter.

Blueberry pie, with a kitty-shaped steam hole of course, and a well sugared crust.

Oh look, there's two pumpkin pies as well! It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without them.

No sense in wasting the extra pie dough. Mom always made tarts with the extra dough. They were the best part because they were so small and precious and because we could eat them right away! These tarts are filled with cherry berry conserve and quince jelly.

What are you having for dessert this Thanksgiving? Are pies on your menu? What kinds? Yum, yum. Be sure to save room for dessert.

Art Lesson: Drawing with Pastels

Today I have a little drawing lesson for you. Something to feed your creative side over Thanksgiving break.

Working with pastels is like making a pie crust: don't handle the thing too much! If you overwork your drawing it will become muddy and lose all the nice little marks you've made. Nature isn't perfect and neither should your drawing be perfect. There is no "erasing" with pastels, but that is part of the fun. So, loosen up and don't judge your drawing until it is complete and you step away from it and say, ahhhh.

Before we begin, let's talk value. Value is how light or dark something is. For this drawing I am going to let the value of the paper play a part. I am fond of drawing with pastels on a colored background, this time I chose black. Areas in my still life that are in shadow will remain the black of the paper. Let your paper work for you.

Gather a group of objects to draw. Odd numbers of things make your eyes happy. Place them on a simple background that will not be a distraction. This is going to be a simple drawing. When you have a handle on the technique feel free to include whatever background you like. Arrange the objects so that they are pleasing to you. You will find that good composition rarely places the largest, most prominent object in the center of the page (unless it is the only object as in this piece). When you have an arrangement you like, find a light you can direct at one side of the still life. This will help define the highlights and shadows for you, making it easier to see where to place them.

Now we are ready to draw. Go grab your pastels. They needn't be expensive ones. Any student grade set will do to start with. If you like the medium you can always upgrade later. There are some wonderful pastels on the market that produce bold, rich color. Chalk pastels are our medium of choice for this lesson. You don't want oil pastels for this. You'll also need a piece of black drawing paper. Construction paper is sufficient for a beginner. The rough texture of the paper holds the chalk well. You can experiment later with different smoothnesses of paper and how that affects the drawing. While you're grabbing your pastels, get yourself a pencil too. But, no eraser. Put that back.

My still life of three objects, lit from the left

Step 1. Sketch your still life lightly with pencil. I used white colored pencil so you could see it better, but you will be able to see your ordinary #2 pencil just fine. No details, just a basic outline of the shape of the objects.

Step 2. Using your pastels on their sides (yes, it is ok to break them into smaller pieces) add the appropriate colors to your objects. Press harder to lay down more chalk on the light side of the objects and press lighter on the dark side to let the black paper show through. Shading isn't so hard when you let the paper do some of the work.

Step 3. Use white to add highlight areas to your objects. Squint at your still life. Where is the light the brightest? Put the highlight there. See, there is a reason artists make funny faces as they work. I squint a lot, but it has nothing to do with needing glasses. When you blurr the details it is easier to see the values.

Laying in the blue hue for the ball and adding the highlight

Step 4. Now you can add some detail. Don't get carried away if this is your first try or if you want your drawing to retain a "fresh", "sketchy" look. Pastels can be blended and can be quite detailed, but for this exercise we are going for quick and fun. Remember the pie crust analogy.

I didn't choose to meticulously draw in each twig of the dried Baby's Breath, but rather I chose to represent the twigginess with a few stray marks.

Each dried flower is represented by an irregular spin of the pastel point. Random and natural. Note: this is what happens when you draw with one hand and hold the camera with the other. Next time maybe I'll remember to use the tripod.

Working on the third object. Same steps as before. Lay in the basic colors, add highlights, add details. 1,2,3, simple as pie.

Notice the absence of color on the dark side of the objects. That paper is doing its job for us.

Step 5. Now you can go back in and add additional shading with a black pastel. I usually reserve this for the cast shadows. The objects themselves are fine as is, but adding extra dark to the shadows the objects cast onto the table gives the objects weight. They are no longer floating above the table, but are visualy anchored to it. I also added the final detail to the ball and some extra shadow inside the vase of flowers. How did I know where to add these? Squinting.

Our finished sketch. Step back away from your work when you are done. View it from a distance and you will be amazed at how different it looks than when you are up close working on it.

Enjoy. Happy sketching.

First Snow

It has been a dreary week and a half. A virus had invaded my life, robbing me of a healthy birthday, attendance at a baby shower, and shopping at a craft fair with Gretchen. All my creative energies had vanished as I hibernated day after dreary day waiting for the coughing and sneezing and aching to loose its grip on me. Bah. Then it started snowing last evening. And I ventured out in it with Julia and Dog. And Julia, Derek, and Shawn ventured out for appetizers and ice cream at Friendly's. And I read in the stillness of the greatroom in the midst of the falling snow. And I began to feel human again.

The coughing woke me early again today. My usual ritual. Today I didn't mind. Today I had intended to wake early, to not miss the magic of early morning snow. First snow. Awake before dawn, I peered out the bedroom window hopefully. Yes, the wind had remained calm. The blanket of snow rested sleepily on the trees, undisturbed. I donned my thick, insulating, L.L. Bean bathrobe and slipped my feet into winter boots waiting hopefully by the door since last evening's venture outside. Camera in hand I met the sunrise, thankful for a private back yard in my odd attire.

The sun is now bright in the sky and chunks of snow like white apples fall from every tree. The jays are hurrying to and from the suet cage, recharging their spent energy. The beauty may be melted away by this afternoon, but the magic of the morning has recharged my energy. I suspect today will be the turning point. I already feel a wellspring of creativity flooding my virus taxed brain. I am on the mend. Finally. And the world is bright and new and waiting.

From the snug greatroom the wonderland of snow beckons

Sunrise begins over the shrouded back yard

A brightening wintry sky

A snowbound bird haven

All snug in their beds

Veteran's Day

We would all be remiss to fail in remembering our veterans today and the valorous service they have given to all of us and to the causes of freedom worldwide. May God hold each of them in His hand and may He bless them for their service on this day of remembrance.

This photo of Earle's father was take when he was barely seventeen. He served his country during World War II in the Pacific aboard the aircraft carriers USS Sangamon and USS Midway. We salute you today for your service, Gus, and hope the year ahead is filled with all the wonderful freedoms you and your generation procured for all of us!

Updates of All Sorts

I have been sick the last couple of days with a sore throat and slight fever which has now turned into a nasty cold. Having been couch/bed bound a good deal of the time I have managed to do a little reading but that is about all. I had to miss our neighbor's baby shower on Saturday, but I was able to drag myself out last night for a few hours to hear Julia's boyfriend Derek preach a sermon at the evening service at his church. He did a great job. I was glad I was able to go, but by the end of the evening I was "done in".

I've finished That hideous Strength, the third book of Lewis's space trilogy. While distinct from the other two in the series, it ties everything together in the end. A good read. I am also finishing a book on church history that I started years ago. Since I've pulled it back out Earle has shown an interest in reading it too. We're sharing the book. We are also reading Shepherds Abiding aloud to each other. We've read pretty much Jan Karon's whole Mitford series of Father Tim aloud to each other over the years. They are like old friends and although it has been a few years since we read the last one, now that we are into the story it seems like just yesterday. The characters have become fresh again in our minds and the warm feelings of becoming a part of that sleepy North Carolina town have begun to transform our little world once again. I've also ordered some Christmas books from Amazon and have some others requested at the library. On those lists are: Christmas at Fairacre, Letters from Father Christmas, Starlight in Tourrone, and Two from Galilee; a Love Story. Then, when the holiday books have been read I will finally make my way through Sophie's World.

Earle's domestic side has been showing lately and it has been refreshing! After coming back from Maine with a recipe from his brother-in-law he whipped us up a fabulous batch of Paula Deen's Chipotle Chicken Chowder. I may have to request this again soon. Then, on Saturday he filled our big, orange Tupperware bowl to the rim with homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. They have been disappearing fast. Hey, oatmeal is a breakfast food. I think i need to get sick and stay out of the kitchen more often!

On Sunday afternoon Shawn participated in a fencing demonstration at a local high school. Guess what's on his Christmas list this year? Yeah, fencing equipment. I think his instructor looks a tad like Jean-Luc Picard, captain of the Starship Enterprise in The Next Generation, don't you? Picard was also a fencing aficionado as well as an avid consumer of Earle Gray tea. A Renaissance captain indeed.

I feel an art update is needed soon. Look for Shawn's continuing progress with Artistic Pursuits, some examples of his walking sticks, and a drawing lesson using pastel that I have been meaning to share for some time now. My next project will be a painting. The canvas is ready and the photo I am using for reference has been selected. Also, each year I have made it a tradition to give each of my relatives a handmade Christmas ornament. That project will have to be underway soon as well. I just have to decide what medium to make them with this year. Past ornaments have been either painted wood or polymer clay. Maybe felt will be playing a role this season.

Silver Maples

Sixteen. I counted them yesterday and yet I can hardly believe it. Sixteen medium to large silver maples on one plot of land less than an acre in size.

Silver maples are one of those "messy" trees, the kind that shed branches with each passing gust of summer wind and shed large leaves all fall, but they are also beautiful trees, covered in lichens, dotting our front lawn and lining our back yard on both sides with their golden leafed brilliance and delicate, swaying branches.

They are a haven for the birds. The mourning doves frolic in them trying to catch the eye of their mate during courting season. The chickadees take off and land from the low branches on their way back and forth from the feeders. The orioles hang nests like ornaments and sing sweet lullabies from the branches. The jays and cardinals hold noisy meetings high in the treetops. The catbirds tease our felines with their mocking calls heard always just around the next corner of the house.

Yesterday was a day for enjoying the autumn warmth and cleaning up the falling leaves our maple friends have left us on the front lawn. Earle and Shawn take turns raking up piles of golden treasure and carrying their bundles to the truck. Our silver maples' leaves now mingle with their cousins from other yards at the green dump. Other years they have been allowed to nestle into our brushy area in back of the house, but the carpet there is growing a bit thick, so off they went this year.

Soon the maples with be bare, they will don their winter snow coats and wait for spring when their energies can once again be put into making leaves, new leaves for another year's annual father-son raking in the golden sunlight of a perfect fall day.

Our lone Japanese maple glowing scarlet against the graying horizon of the late fall landscape

Percy, one of the blog's namesakes, just wanted to sit among the fallen leaves by the back deck and pose for his autumn photo shoot

Away She Goes

Around lunch time today the truck came to gather up our van we donated to the National Kidney foundation. Kidney cars, as they are called, are taken to an auto auction house. The Kidney Foundation uses the money from the sale and the person donating the vehicle takes a tax write-off in the amount the car sells for. It is a good deal all around. Any progress the foundation can make towards helping people with kidney disease is wonderful.

My brother Tom is a kidney dialysis patient. The treatment saves his life, yet burdens him with a tremendous time commitment hooked up to the machine as well as a cycle of feeling some better after a treatment, then lousy the day before another one. I pray, and hope you will join me, that new treatments will be found and new ways will be discovered to both protect our kidneys and help them to heal when they are damaged. I'm sure Tom would appreciate your prayers as well.

Winching the van onto the truck

The donated vehicle that was on the flatbed when he pulled in becomes a tow-behind to make room for the van

Why Church?

Someone asked me the other day why I go to church, in essence, what's in it for me, how does it help me to have a better life.

There is certainly companionship, a traveller through life can always use the support of others. We were not meant to be an island unto ourselves.

Also, we were created by God, made in his image, for a purpose. We are to have a relationship with him. Imagine, the Creator of everything there is wants to get to know me and me Him. I am but a speck of dust on an insignificant planet in a nondescript spiral galaxy among millions of other galaxies, yet He wants me to know Him. Who could refuse an invitation like that?

But He isn't out there, He is everywhere, He is inside me. You know that voice, the one that keeps nudging you on to find something new to fill that longing within your soul. You can try to fill it with many things in this world: friends, activities, work, things, but the shape is all wrong. After a while the newness that seemed just right begins to rub the wrong way like a pair of shoes that seemed comfortable in the store but give you blisters on the backs of your heels when you've walked in them all day. Nothing of this world can fill that longing. That hole is God-shaped.

Church isn't a building, it is a relationship and a community. What's in it for me? A chance to experience being surrounded by other Christians, to support them and be supported in return. The opportunity to join together with those other Christians to worship the Creator of the universe, jointly. To give Him the honor He deserves and to give it publicly and with a loving heart. Sometimes it isn't enough to pray, to think about praise and honor in your own head. Sometimes it is necessary to come together with others, to become one voice just as the millions of galaxies of the universe He created sing His praises together. One of them doesn't step out of its orbit and say, "Look at me, I'm special, more special than the others."No. When we do that we bring the focus of worship to ourselves. In the corporate body of the church the focus remains on the one being praised.

I told my friend church can be a wonderful place, but be sure you will not find perfection there. There is not perfection on the Earth. We are all fallen creatures, imperfect is so many ways. Church isn't about celebrating our perfection, but His perfection. If we were not broken we would have no need for Jesus as our savior. If we could get it all right by ourselves we would be gods- perfect, whole, all powerful. I am certainly no god.

Sometimes church is a frustrating place to go to. There are people we don't especially like and truths we don't especially want to hear. Maybe we'd rather have different music or a different color carpet. Perhaps our preference is for guitars, but this Sunday we sing His praises accompanied by the piano or organ. As C.S. Lewis said, "We are all fallen creatures and all very hard to live with."

People often criticize Christians as being hypocrites. How can we claim we are Christians and "saved" when we are still so imperfect? What's so good about that? There is the expectation that churches are full of people that are somehow "better" than the rest or at least think they are. Really, churches are filled with people that know and freely admit they are no better than anyone else, they freely admit their need for Jesus to have died to pay for their sins so they can have the relationship with God that He always intended.

That's what's in it for me, a place to come together with others who are imperfect like myself and let go of the burdens this world puts on us to be perfect and to lay those burdens in the hands of a loving God who gave up everything in order that we, in our brokenness, could know his love and forgiveness. It is not a place to worship myself and my success and a human being. When we are free of the burden of trying to perfect ourselves by our own power then we can really live. Everything we do takes on new meaning. We no longer do them for ourselves alone, but for Him and for others out of gratefulness and thanksgiving and love.

God beckons us to worship because he knows we need it and we need Him. Church is not the building, it is the people and the experience. It is the chance to fulfill the words of the Bible:

28One of the religion scholars came up. Hearing the lively exchanges of question and answer and seeing how sharp Jesus was in his answers, he put in his question: "Which is most important of all the commandments?"
29-31Jesus said, "The first in importance is, 'Listen, Israel: The Lord your God is one; so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.' And here is the second: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' There is no other commandment that ranks with these."
32-33The religion scholar said, "A wonderful answer, Teacher! So lucid and accurate—that God is one and there is no other. And loving him with all passion and intelligence and energy, and loving others as well as you love yourself. Why, that's better than all offerings and sacrifices put together!" Mark 12:28-33

The Creator of the whole universe doesn't need our worship on Sunday mornings, he knows we need it. How wonderful to know He cares for this tiny speck of dust as if it was the most precious jewel in the whole universe. How can I not be grateful and praise Him in return?

Happy Halloween

Last night we had our token three groups of trick-or-treaters. They were young kids from our street and cute as can be!

Shawn helped hand out candy at Deborah's house to about a hundred "kids" of varying sizes and ages. It seems the older teens, young adults, and even middle aged adults hit that neighborhood. Since we are on a dead end street up a hill we don't get neighborhood extras.

Julia and Derek went to visit some friends in the town he is from and ended up playing The Farming Game well into the night. These older teens/young adults give the game rave reviews.

Of course everyone is going to be enjoying a nice sugar high today from all the leftover candy!

Here are some pics of Julia and Shawn and their pumpkins. They made a perfect welcoming committee at our door last night.

Pre-carving

Santa's little helper is early this year?!

It pays to have long arms

The friendly giant!

Toothless (almost) grin

The welcoming committee