Remembrance

The Unwavering Spirit

September 11, 2016photography, Uncategorized9/11, 9/11 Memorial, 9/11 Memorial Museum, photography, postaday, Remembrance, September 11thAndrew Seal View all 7 comments

From St Paul’s Chapel, Lower Manhattan, New York

We visited the chapel on our visit to ground zero and the National September 11 Memorial Museum last year. The rear of the chapel faced opposite the east side of the World Trade Centre, as it does now to the Freedom Tower. After the attack on September 11 it served as a place of rest and refuge for recovery workers at the World Trade Center site.

As we pause to remember and reflect on that fateful morning fifteen years ago today this uniform together with the crushed remains of Ladder 3 that are so reverently displayed in the Museum, and about which I posted earlier this year, all serve to remind us of the sacrifice and bravery of those 343 firefighters of the New York City Fire Department who were lost that day, together with an additional 68 emergency workers and the 2566 innocent lives they were trying to save.

Hope & Healing at Ground Zero

spirit wind

August 23, 2016photography, Uncategorized, Weekly Photo Challenge#discoverWP, Pacific Spirit Park, photography, postaday, Remembrance, video, weekly photo challenge, WPDiscoverAndrew Seal View all 2 comments

For last week’s Discover Challenge Ben asked us to show “something that stands out from the everyday.” This second submission is to share one of those rare moments to be savoured both visually and aurally. Last week on our favourite walk along the Admiralty Trail in the Pacific Spirit Regional Park the sun was illuminating the trees swaying in the warm afternoon wind creating a symphony of light and sound.

This week is our daughter and son-in-law’s second wedding anniversary and our forty second. A time to celebrate and be thankful, but this year I cannot help but think of the families and friends so callously murdered and injured at their own wedding celebrations last week in Gaziantep, near the Syrian border in Turkey, and to whom I dedicate today’s post. There are no words that can begin to understand their sorrow and pain. Not being religious I will let the wind in the trees of the Pacific Spirit Park be my prayer.

carrying all before: part 2

July 26, 2016Art, UncategorizedArt, Art studio, Remembrance, watercolor, worldwatercolormonthAndrew Seal View all 6 comments

Riding the Wind 26.7.16 Final

I would like to dedicate today’s painting to the memory of Father Jacques Hamel
cruelly murdered today as he performed morning mass at his church,
St Etienne-du-Rouvray in Normandy, France.

Mohammed Karabila, the president of Normandy’s Regional Council of the Muslim Faith, who worked with Father Hamel on an interfaith committee, described him as “a man of peace” who “dedicated his life to his ideas and religion”.

Father Hamel’s spirit is now riding the wind, a wind which we will all feel wherever we may be.

prepare six dishes

July 23, 2016Art, UncategorizedArt, Art studio, humanity, landscape painting, Remembrance, watercolor, worldwatercolormonthAndrew Seal View all 18 comments

Rising Mist 23.07.16 In Progress

The last section, Part IV, of Tony Smibert’s book Painting Landscapes from you Imagination, which I began working through at the beginning of the month, is titled: The Projects, of which there are three, and today I began the first – Rising Mist.

“The palette. You’ll need to have all your colors ready to go,” writes Tony.
Prepare six dishes of the following colors: Yellow Ochre, Cobalt Blue, Cerulean Blue, Hooker’s Green, Lamp Black. The last dish will contain your gray made from Phthalo Blue and Light Red.”

“The color notes are a way of planning before you begin”

to be continued…

Although I was working in my studio in Vancouver my thoughts were many thousands of miles away with the people of Kabul where so many lost their lives or were injured in yet another terrorist crime against humanity today. I may be painting and trying to bring color and joy into the world but I want you to know that my heart breaks with each and every one of these terrible events that our world is experiencing with a too unbearable regularity.

a sky with a message

July 22, 2016Art, UncategorizedArt, Art studio, landscape painting, Remembrance, Seascape, watercolor, worldwatercolormonthAndrew Seal View all 4 comments

I painted this last July though never posted it. Realizing that the colors of the German flag are very much in evidence in the dramatic sky, this watercolor is one way for me to express to those in Germany that my thoughts are very much with them today.

the wrong road

July 15, 2016UncategorizedCanada, France, Nice, Remembrance, solidarity, watercolor, worldwatercolormonthAndrew Seal View all 14 comments

After yesterday’s right road all I can feel today is an overwhelming sense of sadness and despair as we remember beautiful little five year old Taliyah Marsman, whose body was found by the road yesterday, and her mother both murdered in Calgary this week, together with all of the other children murdered with their parents in Nice yesterday, including eleven year old Brodie Copeland and his father Sean from Texas, mown down with so many others on the Promenade des Anglais. We remember them all with a heavy heart, and once again express our sympathy and solidarity with the people of France together with all of the families around the world who may be grieving today .

There are no more words except,

Je suis…un homme qui pleure aujourd’hui.

the crying poppy

July 8, 2016Art, UncategorizedArt, Art studio, humanity, Remembrance, sorrow, watercolor, worldwatercolormonthAndrew Seal View all 3 comments

A watercolour painted this morning listening to the news from
Dallas, Minnesota and Baton Rouge.

In remembrance.

Je suis, I am

June 29, 2016Photo Essay, UncategorizedArt studio, Istanbul, Remembrance, WPDiscoverAndrew Seal View all 8 comments

It was the first time, and it wouldn’t be the last.

On January 7th 2015 I spelled out Je Suis Charlie on my studio floor. It was the first time. Six days later on January 11th, as millions marched around the world, I used my palette to express solidarity in the best way I knew how. Later in the year on November 14th it became necessary once again to turn to my palette and to write the three words, Je suis Paris. Then on March 22nd of this year I became Belge et Bruxelles, and as recently as June 12th, Orlando.

Today…

With a heavy heart and in response to this week’s Discover Challenge: Opening line

remembering dad

June 19, 2016photography, UncategorizedFather's Day, photography, postaday, Remembrance, WPDiscoverAndrew Seal View all 7 comments

Happy Father’s Day with loving memories of our wonderful dad.

I am Orlando

June 12, 2016Pen and Ink, Uncategorizedhumanity, LGBT, Orlando, pen and ink drawing, Remembrance, solidarity, sympathy, watercolorAndrew Seal View all 14 comments

Last year I was Charlie and then Paris, today I am Orlando, and once again find myself needing to express my solidarity and sympathy through the best way I know how with all those mourning today in Orlando, in the United States and around the world and particularly with all those in the LGBT community.