God bless us every one!

... as Tiny Tim says in Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

Happy Christmas one and all!

Wishing You
A Very Happy and Blessed Christmas

and all the very best for 2011
from Joc & Marty Sanders

I like this Madonna by Albin Egger-Lienz (1868-1926) because of the luminous warmth of the light, and also because the artist was born just outside the lovely town of Lienz in the Austrian East Tyrol, where we stayed last summer. On the first morning we were woken by the sound of marching bands leading Tyrolean sharp-shooters in traditional uniform. They were parading to an open-air Corpus Christi Day mass across the main square from our hotel. Dressing quickly, I joined the worshippers in the street and did my best to follow it in German - a marvellous experience!

Christmas Greetings

Wishing you

A Very Happy & Blessed Christmas

and all the very best for 2010

The Petrograd Madonna painted in 1918 by Kuzma Sergeyevich Petrov-Vodkin (1878-1939). This painting has an icon-like quality, reflecting the artist’s teenage work with icon painters at Khvalynsk on the Volga, where he was born. For me it is a reminder that the Christ-child comes to us in every age, even in the midst of turmoil and strife.