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 • …
Above Marburg, Germany, Looking Down from a High Wall Read More »
This painting comes from a sketch I made on the Devon coast of England in the early 1990’s. I was leading a retreat for young leaders and during free time wandered to the coast and sat gazing at this scene. In the white house on the hill, the red cliffs plunging to the sea, and …
Mepkin Abbey is a Trappist monastery on the Cooper River, in the low country of South Carolina. I have gone there many years for some day of retreat, observing the silence at night and during meals, finding refreshment in the lovely grounds. Once I saw another artist sitting unmoving by a pond. She was the …
Whenever I look again at this scene in the Virginia countryside it seems like a renewed invitation to walk this shadowed path into the brilliant and beckoning colors of autumn. The leaves scattered along the grass and ground are reminders of times past. The receding sunlit trees and the curve in the path assure me …
On a summer afternoon I was on a leisurely drive through England’s lake district. I came to this lovely bridge and had to stop and rest. I sat on some rocks and sketched the bridge, captivated by the view and the thought of those who crossed the stream across the years. Watercolor • 2000
The aspen grove in its full fall color is glorious. Yet there would be no growth if not for their hidden root system. One aspen grove in Colorado has forty-four thousand trunks, mostly hidden from sight. This painting is a symbol of leaders who do not just make a public display, but whose roots are …
