Category: Uncategorized

[Photograph by Jianwei Chen]

Once on a morning of sweet recreation

I heard a fair lady a-making her moan,

With sighing and sobbing and sad lamentation,

Aye singing, ‘My Blackbird for ever is flown!

He’s all my heart’s treasure, my joy, and my pleasure,

So justly, my love, my heart follows thee;

And I am resolved, in foul or fair weather,

To seek out my Blackbird, wherever he be.

This song was sung in Scotland both before the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion and after it – and as the Editor of ‘The Jacobite Songs and Ballads’ (1861) makes clear, ‘The Blackbird’ was the nick-name his friends gave to the Old Pretender – James Frances Edward Stuart.

He had a very dark complexion – a characteristic he shared with his father-in-law, Charles II, who was named ‘The Black Boy’ by his mother – and described as a ‘tall, black man’ on Wanted…

A random survey of self-portraits created by women through the centuries

American Painter and illustrator Doris Lee (1904-1983)

Self-Portrait, c.1935 / Oil on canvas / D. Wigmore Fine Art, Inc, New York, NY

[2 embedded links above]

Dec. 30, 2021~ Doris Lee, Unjustly Forgotten, Gets a Belated but Full Blown Tribute
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/30/arts/design/doris-lee-overlooked-artist-exhibition.html

It’s day 17 in the Diamine Inkvent calendar, and check out that cool snowflake:

Day 17’s ink is Diamine Flame, an orange standard ink. Yay for standard inks again!

Diamine Flame is a bright orange with some shading and did I mention that it’s a standard ink? No shimmer, sheen, sparkles or scent. Nice for a change.

I am continuing my animal theme for now, this time with a sketch of a clown fish. You can see Diamine Flame’s shading and outlining properties quite well here”

Diamine Flame is dark enough to be legible without losing its orange nature (it’s not too red, in other words). Will I buy a full bottle of this? Likely not, as I don’t normally use orange inks. It is, however, a well behaved, interesting enough orange ink for…

At the Parish Church of St. Mary le Strand, nothing is quite as it first appears!

Here, for example, is the ‘official’ photograph of the Hanoverian Crest of King George I which sits above the apse…..

But we asked our photographer, Jianwei Chen, to photograph the crest from a different angle – and this is what we discovered…..

A unicorn with a monster-sized horn!

Remember, the decoration of the interior of St. Mary le Strand began in 1719 – after the failure of the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion, led by John Erskine, 6th Earl of Mar….

James Gibbs – the designer of St. Mary le Strand….

……..described here in the Latin as ‘Jacobus Gibbs’…..was also a convinced Jacobite, determined, as a Roman Catholic, to bring the Catholic friendly – and indeed Roman Catholic – Stuart family back to the throne of Britain….

He worked as a Jacobite agent for Mar in…

1. The Golden Triangle in the Apse.

[Photograph by Jianwei Chen]

The Golden Triangle – with the first two Hebrew Letters for ‘God’ – is associated with the Knights Templar. They were said to have found the ‘Delta of Enoch’ hidden in a sacred vault in the Temple of Solomon – and brought it to Scotland when they fled persecution in France. In gratitude, the Knights fought with Robert Bruce against the English at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 – and won!

John Graham of Claverhouse – the great Jacobite hero ‘Bonnie Dundee’ –

…….was said to have worn the Knights Templar Cross beneath his breastplate at the Battle of Killiecrankie in 1689. He was shot dead at the height of his victory in the battle……

……..so John Erskine, 6^th Earl of Mar ……

– the patron of St. Mary le Strand’s architect, James Gibbs – revived this Order…