Leighton Ford

Chetola Lodge is a place where I’ve held many gatherings over the years. It’s located within walking distance of the village of Blowing Rock, NC. Watercolor • 2022

I began this pastel painting at home during the pandemic shut-down on a partly used sheet of paper bearing one dark blue swatch. As I worked the dark blue turned into reddish brown cliffs, expanding into the expanse of sky and sea, and finally the one lone bird. Perhaps my imagination was telling me that

There is a place in the Virginia hills, where dear friends have built a retreat house, where I have often gone with a group seeking discernment and guidance for their lives and calling. The house itself fits perfectly in this setting. And nature around, as with this sunset, calls us to let go our need

In deep winter, after a year of being shut in by the pandemic, and after hearing an old friend had died, my dog Buddy and I walked on a deserted golf course. This moment, with the sun breaking through the dark sky, reminded me of biblical words sent to me after a loss years ago

On an afternoon walk in Freedom Park, a friend and I paused to gaze at this duck resting in the reflected colors of sky and earth. It made us pause from our preoccupations to look, to listen, and drink in the beauty around. These wild creatures, poet Wendell Berry reminds us, do not tax their

Marburg is a university city in Germany, unusual in that it is built on two levels, with a funicular escalator leading from one level to another. From above we see the spire of the Lutheran church, where on midweek nights hundreds of young students and professionals gather for “ChristusTreff” – the “Christ Meeting.” Watercolor •