Wednesday 12 October 2011

Landscape no-no, history and some trivia

I attempted a drawing from a photo I took recently but unfortunately it was utter rubbish so I'm uploading the photo instead!


I wanted to draw this pic because this particular church has special significance for me.  It is the parish church in a lovely little village in Buckinghamshire called Newton Blossomville.  Many ancestors of mine were baptised, married and buried here back in the early 1800s.  I am writing a book about them and want to include some of my own drawings in it.  This image, however, is far better left as a photo!  I don't know why I thought it would make a good drawing.  Ah well, I'll have to have a rethink, maybe take a trip over there again and take some more photos.

Incidentally, Newton Blossomville has some connection with a chap named John Newton who lived in the small town of Olney, about two miles away.  John Newton was a curate in Olney where he wrote the hymn 'Amazing Grace' in the 1770s.  Apparently, he wrote it after he had some kind of spiritual awakening and it was then put to music and became an anthem for Black African slaves, especially in America.  Beautiful, haunting song and written in little old Olney!  It's amazing what you can discover when researching your family history.

Newton Blossomville is such a gorgeous little village and it's like stepping back in time going there.  The only things that tell you you're in the 21st century are the cars on the road ... oh and the tarmac on the roads too!  Here's another pic of it ...



By the way, I did some final tweaks to my Rachael portrait, straightened out her collar bone for example, and I've posted it on the Paint My Photo site (click on 'View Slideshow' to see it properly).  I'm quite pleased with how it turned out (Good Grief did I really just say that?!).

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