Pictures of St Charles Borromeo, the man who did more than most to save the Catholic church from the Reformation and who was an outstanding Archbishop of Milan. And so he should ! He was a Medici.

Boris Johnson referred to Britain as the incredible hulk.

In front of the angry hulk are three Remainer ladies who know what is best for us all because they are better people than we are…

The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on.

Nor all thy piety nor wit

Cn lure it back to cancel half a line.

Nor all thy tears wash out a word of it…

Omar Khayyam loved being in the pub as the slate mounted up…

More of one of my most favourite poets: illustrated.

If you see the originals (the nude lady with wings on her feet to make is Classical), you will appreciate this:

Now the New Year reviving old desires

The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires,

Where the WHITE HAND of MOSES on the bough

Puts out, and JESUS \from the Ground suspires.

Indeed, indeed Repentance oft before 

I swore - but was I sober when I swore?

And then and then came spring - and Rose in Hand

My thread-bare Penitence a-pieces tore.

This morning (06-09-19) I rezd this on Spiked online.

It is about Ruskin the famous Victorian who married Effie Gray and who never consummated his marriage. Why? He was put off when he was his wife's public hair! She later married Millais.
Then he fell in love with a little girl of just 14, one of his drawing students - Rose la Touche. When she got to 18, he proposed and she refused him. He then became a rabid Socialist who really cared about the degradation of the working man. There was never any sign of impropriety, by the way. But - hey - that is not enough for either the Victorians or for us!

Read this: it is exactly how I feel about art.

He discovered Turner.

He believed that nature had been created by God for man and that all great art was praise. He spent much of his creative life teaching and encouraging others. He didn’t exhibit his own work – he didn’t think it worthy. It was for others to decide whether to exhibit his work after his death. William Morris said of him, ‘He seemed to point out a new road on which others should travel’.

…

Artists are no longer judged on the artistic merits of their work alone but on the supposed politics of their work – whether it is suitably progressive or otherwise. It’s a new kind of Stalinism

I adore the Rubayyat of Omar Khayyam translated by Edward Fitzgerald.

Here with a loaf of bread beneath the bough,
A flask of wine, a book of verse, and thou
Beside me singing in the wilderness,
And wilderness is paradise enow.

And as the cock crew, those who stood before

The Tavern shouted, "Open then the door!

"You know how little time we have to stay,

"And once departed may return no more."

The latest at the Secret Garden.

The latest from the Secret Garden: see how they are developing

All of them are Wisbech heroes except for Thomas Thistlewood who was a villain! Poor Phibbah - his slave!

Ely cathedral.

This took a couple of months for a perfect replica. Done by the excellent Rupert Cordeux (aka Rupert Chicken).

The magnificent setting for the pictures.

In a polytunnel! Warm, often full of people drinking gin or at the Christmas Market.

A perfect art gallery.

The Secret Garden by Christmas 2018.

One hundred days to Brexit!

The Mile Tree Brewery is in the Secret Garden. This is a silly advert which I could not resist doing!

Thomas Clarkson was replaced as the man who abolished slavery by William Wilberforce, a witty, friendly orator whom everyone liked. He was, apparently, a brilliant mimic too. The reason everyone knows about him today is that his two sons wrote his biography and, since they had high positions in the Church, they took the credit and wrote Thomas Clarkson out of history!
But the facts is the facts - as some American President never said.
It is not generally known that the British Empire in Africa and the Middle East was built as Victorian Christians followed Clarkson in their passion to abolish slavery. Cecil Rhodes was driven to suggest the Cape to Cairo railway for this reason - he had already made his name and his millions by then.

 Dammit! I like villains better than nice people! This is a serious villain. I looked on the internet at the faces of the SS torturers who exterminated the Jews and this man's face is a lot worse! Honestly it is. This is Thomas Thistlewood who used his slaves for personal pleasures of the most disgusting kind. No. No details will be forthcoming.
I put him up with Phibbah, his common law "wife", to show what slavery does to nice, decent Lincolnshire boys when they are exposed to it. What poor Phibbah - and even the overseers (all black by the way) - went through on his plantation is unimaginable. But at least the gas chambers weren't invented in those far off days.

Study in negative shapes.

Study in dramatic lighting

Warm up.

Dexter wearing scarf.

You should always do this: turn a lying pose sideways to see if you have got the proportions right,

Exercise in drawing with only straight lines - very helpful.

More life Drawing: Sharon and Dexter.

Very grateful to Becka for running the class during November. She taught me a lot - as did the two professional models.

The top one is Octavia Hill who founded the National Trust but perhaps more important she did a lot of hard work in London working with the poor. The next one down is Thomas Clarkson who led the fight against slavery which dominated the 19th century. A very great - and forgotten - man. The Third one is Rev Awdrey who lived in Emneth and who wrote the original Thomas the Tank Engine series for his son.

So what did all have in common? Well, they lived and came from Wisbech so I painted them in the Secret Garden for Neil who is the owner and who is (at the moment) encouraging me - a rare thing indeed!

https://www.thesecretgardentouringpark.co.uk

Did some more life drawing.
Sharon was the model.