Snowing at Gravesend

Snowing at Gravesend

 The other morning, an artist I follow on Instagram posted that it was snowing in his city, and he was rejoicing in the snow! As I looked at his posts, I was watching the thickly falling snow outside my own windows. The thing that really caught my attention was his comment. "Snowing at Gravesend! Hallelujah!" 

9" x 12"

Painted with the finest quality heavy-body acrylic paint on acid-free, heavy weight Fabriano watercolor paper

Ready to frame

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This painting started out as a small study, where I am working out how the colors in the first few layers interact with colors in later layers. It is a painting practice that is intended to help me clarify what I should do to finish a large painting I have been working on.  It really came to life, so to speak, when I added the white. (As a side note, the painting is not yet signed because I like it both vertically and horizontally, so I haven't chosen where to add my name.)

Gravesend is a city on the Thames River, and near the North Sea, if my research is correct, and has a mild temperature most of the year. Part of me thinks a steady, mild climate would be pleasant to live in, but I really enjoyed the artist's excitement over the snow! The video of him shows him laughing and losing his footing on slippery ground as he walked with snow and wind in his face. 

I think the thing that most struck me about his post was not his exuberant delight in the snow, but the idea of that kind of joy in a city named Graves-end. I still feel the emotion that wells up with the idea. After this year of sickness and isolation, doesn't the name Gravesend strike you too?

It reminds me of the story of Jesus' resurrection found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. I have been reading through the gospels lately, and am learning a lot, even though I have read through them more times than I can count. (I use colored pencils to mark things that are especially meaningful to me each time I read through the Bible, and change the color each time through if I remember, and you should see all the colors!) Each time I get to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, I get that same welling up of emotion. 

Mark 16:1-7 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so they could go and anoint Him. Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they went to the tomb at sunrise. They were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone from the entrance to the tomb for us?” Looking up, they observed that the stone—which was very large—had been rolled away. When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a long white robe sitting on the right side; they were amazed and alarmed. “Don’t be alarmed,” he told them. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has been resurrected! He is not here! See the place where they put Him. But go, tell His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you to Galilee; you will see Him there just as He told you.’”

As happens to me pretty often, I cannot quite put all of my thoughts about this little painting into words. But I can 'see' the city on the river leading to the sea, and the way the white brings exuberance to the painting reminds me of snow in Gravesend, and of the end of the grave which was brought about by Jesus' resurrection.