I have spent most of today scanning images and completing the posts from my UK trip. I have been back one day and am still feeling completely disorientated but I am almost up to date now with the blog.
There are just a couple sketches left .. the first one is of the beautiful little panel of stained glass that was set into the window of my room at West Dean. Having so recently seen all the Tiffany glass in the Orlando museum this old glass is is quite different, fine and delicate by comparison. I think the panel has been assembled from fragments of old glass as the pieces don’t seem to fit well within the leading. I always sleep with the curtains open because I love summer mornings and each morning this strange enigmatic figure playing its silent music was the first thing I saw. This mournful angel or saint with its delicate curls and sad mouth is accompanied by symbols of building of some kind and a flaming sun. It is quite beautiful. I wanted to paint it in order just to look at it more closely, more than that would be a waste of time I think. It is impossible to improve on the original.
The other sketch is of a lovely chunk of flint that I found on the path by the woods. Flint makes up much of the fabric of the buildings here. It is irresistibly drawable with its black smooth heart, the chalky white coating and bleached bone sculptural form.
These are two items which I would have happily put in my suitcase… there were many others.
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Glass and Stone
