Onto the iMac at 6:00am but unable to use it – moved to the MacBook Air instead. From 8:30 I was on the phone to AppleCare and after a troublesome hour got it sorted. A truly wonderful example of the most genuine customer care – twice now in a few months.

On the First World War get some prep done on Trench Lines, and the rest of November’s ‘Diary of the War 1916’ uploaded : image and further notes especially from ‘Les 300 jours de Verdun’.

Walk Evie around a windy and wet Stanley Turner.

Cook butternut squash and root vegetable for soup and mash.

Reading ‘The Western Front : landscape, tourism and heritage’.

This is a review copy of a new publication. I review about three books on the First World War each month. I have another three open at any one time.

Beyond Belief

On the way to Swimming club catch much of ‘Beyond Belief?’ On BBC Radio 4, at around 4:45 Monday 21 November there was a fascinating discussion on the power of the painting over photography for expressing who a person truly is.

“A newborn prefers the face of its mother to that of other people within a day of being born; the experience of being in love involves gazing at the face of the beloved. Face to face encounters are at the heart of human intimacy for most people so its understandable that many religions choose to speak of the individuals relationship with God as a facial encounter. What are the advantages and dangers in giving God a face?

Ernie Rea’s guests are Dr Chetna Kang, consultation psychiatrist and Hindu priest in the Bhakti Yoga tradition, Aaron Rosen. Professor of Religious Thought & Director of Cultural Projects, Rocky Mountain College, Montana U.S.A and Ben Quash, Professor of Christianity and the Arts, Kings College, London.”
Vedic, God has a face. Judaism, absolutely not, but plenty of anthropomorphic, Christian, yet we have Christ.
Vedic, in a Hindu tradition god can be everything,human and animal. More intimate in form. So how did Moses have a face to face with God? Progress towards God up a mountain. Heart, energy, the person. (The Tripex). Krishna is always 16 years old and very attractive. Face of Jesus idealised in Christian tradition. Another image of perfection.

Mark Cazalet, seeing god’s face in the face of strangers.

Cazalet drew 153. One, actually Ben Quash, didn’t see himself but he saw his mother and father. This is not me, but this is an essence of me. I don ‘think see myself, but I see what other people see. Another where for 50 seconds the real person emerged. Better to leave people in a state of contemplation rather than see themselves. A person who saw themselves despite never having a photograph. Being seen by god. We behold a God through the faces of others. We invest so much in what we saw about ourselves through our face. We crave someone being that attentive to us.when we are ashamed we hide. Who is holding the camera : God or society? What is the true essence beyond the appearance of things? C.S.Lewis. Getting rid of our masks to see the real face. There’s something spiritual in Kassalat’s work. Wanting to see God in the faces of strangers. 153 – loads.

My art includes : Eileen Cooper, Barthélémy Toguo, my photographs and drawings  …

Why do drawings from photographs dail to achieve this,  and why David Hockey’s recent mass of paintings do not achieve this either, nor do street artists knocking out likenesses because they never penetrate the surface.

The vulnerability of seeing your face in the mirror, before you compose yourself.

I enjoyed the French film ‘Renoir’ which exposes the relationship that can develop between an artist and sitter.

Swimming
Starts and turns, so a warm up on all strokes, with some emphasis on fixing techniques, then ‘S,T,Fs’ with a large float in the middle of the pool and emphasis on starts (stance, response, flight, entry, transition), turn (approach, turn as pivot or tumble, push off and transition) and then finish (approach and touch). My grade 4s, most age 9 or 10 were terrific: three of them even have butterfly.

Home to make supper: line caught wild sall