arrival

It's a difficult one James but I can see where you are coming from. To record a moment in time such as this is one that will remind you of this tragic and sad event, so a good way to practice and a much more personal record.

I just find it an interesting record of an event...one that will overtake all of us one day. Like your bride rushing to church this is interesting ( sorry I almost said lively) and very nicely portrayed. I do like your sketch book James.

Just had a thought...do your parishioners know you do this? A bit like being a fly on the wall.

Funerals are, inspite of their association with sadness, also a celebration. Trite, perhaps? I don't think so. There are many composers, writers and painters who record the times before the final passing, partly from a need to outwardly express the emotion as concrete form, and also because for some it's catharsis. Monet painted his first wife as she lay dead. It's a short step from that to recording graphically, a funeral. Don't families take photographs at wakes? Another short step. I'm actually suprised that it has not become a commercial venture for pro photographers.Your sketch records a social occassion and is now a part of history. Think of it as being contepmorary documentaion. Very imprtant and too infrequent.

Camille Monet on her Death Bed..Monet 1879

Just found this one James, the first thing I noticed was the men with their hands clasped behind their backs, both of them wearing long overcoats, an image which sums up the solemness of the occasion so well, as everyone has already indicated you have observed and drawn one of those moments in time that are extraordinary, one of those shuffling from foot to foot not knowing what to say or do next moments, that was best described to me once a long time ago by someone explaining why life insurance policies are known as life assurance policies, because the only thing that is guaranteed to happen to us all is dying so we are assured of being paid out on these policies and these policies alone