My Art and the Centenary Art Exhibition 2026

For the Centenary of the Garden Chapel and for the parish of St Stephen’s Pinelands, I was part of a small team that organised a Community Art Exhibition to celebrate the event. It was fun discovering the local artists, and inviting others beyond the suburb.

Being something of an artist myself, I prepared a number of charcoal sketches for the event. I had never worked in charcoal before, but had always loved its earthiness and roughness. It is truly of the dust of the earth. Previously I had done water-colour and line drawings of English and Norfolk flint buildings, even sold them. This was a new challenge. Much had to be done in advertising to get people to come to the Exhibition which ran from the Wednesday evening Opening to the Sunday morning. We were enormously encouraged by the attendance of the community.

Titles of the painting and drawings from left to right: from left to right: The Family, The Centenary Dove Descending on the Garden Chapel; Below: Into the New Day

I also created a three dimensional Art display using a root and a number of twigs from trees that had come down in Pinelands.

Here is my drawing of the central figure in my creation: The Soul of the Forest (centre), the other figures represent the Spirits of the Forest:

And here is what the figures of the spirits become in my notebook through the imagination:

• My Art and the Centenary Art Exhibition 2026
• A Simple Morning Prayer for busy People.
• Henry Frank Frieslaar Tribute
• Fly, Eagle, Fly! A Children’s Story, by Christopher Gregorowski read by Bob Commin
• Quotations on my reflection on Christmas and its meaning 2026, and the ART Exhibition, July-August

The Speeches on the Opening Night The Spirits of the Forest