Anne Twisleton’s gallery

 

Ever since I was a small child, I loved to draw pictures.  When preparing for A-levels, the art teacher encouraged us always to carry an A5 notebook and pencil, and to observe and sketch from life - capturing an expression, a movement, whatever caught my attention as interesting.  My husband John helped me take snaps of some of these impressions.  The first is a view of the houses in Church Lane in Horsted Keynes, a lovely community where Father John was the Rector from 2009 to 2017.

Conkers!  The glossy brown nut in a downy bed, protected by a prickly exterior.  Children boring holes in the nut and threading a piece of string through to try to smash the conker of a rival.  Autumn had arrived, and soon the days would be shorter, and colder.  In the 50s, primary school boys were more likely than girls to be competing with conkers.  

Here’s the hapless Jonah being swallowed by the big fish, having chosen to disobey God’s command to take the message to Ninevites from God that unless they changed their evil ways, God would visit judgement on their nation. Jonah went in the opposite direction, buying a ticket on a boat leaving for Tarshish (Spain).  Who wouldn’t prefer a holiday in the Med to delivering an unwelcome warning from God to a hostile nation?  A storm ensued, and despite the efforts of the sailors, the vessel was about to sink.  Jonah confessed to the crew that he was running from God, and told the crew to throw him into the sea, where a huge fish swallowed him alive.   Three days in the belly of the big fish, then being vomited out still alive didn’t sweeten Jonah’s temper, and the grumpy prophet, reluctantly obeying orders gave God’s message of judgement to the Ninevites.  The nation from the King down believed God’s message through Jonah, repented and turned to God.  Jonah is furious!  “Oh, Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home?  That’s why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish.  I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love...Now, O Lord, take away my life!  What a temper!  The end of the account has God showing Jonah that Nineveh has more than 120,000 people  - “should I not be concerned about that great city?”

Karanambo Lodge and cattle ranch in the Savannahs of Guyana. The friendship of Diane McTurk, whose pioneering parents built the adobe house, with its thatched roof.  Travellers were glad of the hospitality and welcome.  Film makers came to record the lives of giant otters who lived in the Rupununi, wild, but they visited the ranch often, causing any human guests to draw their feet into the hammocks to prevent the otters from biting our rubber flip flops.  When we were married in the village of Yupukari, our parents stayed in the guest cabins at Karanambo.  Animals of all kinds were drawn there, including snakes, capybara, iguanas (who might be served up at the supper table).  Diane is at the radio in this sketch, with the amerindian who had paddled his canoe several miles on the Rupununi river, awaiting an answer over the radio to take back to one of the villages.  It may have been an emergency requiring the use of the ancient landrover to take somebody to the nearest hospital 2 hours away in Lethem in the dry season, but 4 or 5 hours drive in the rainy season.

These birds came to the feeding tray, making a delightful splash of colour, at Karanambo Ranch in the Rupununi district of Guyana.  Diane McTurk’s mother used to be made comfortable in her hammock, and would gaze lovingly at the birds as they came and went, while the hustle and bustle of the ranch went on around her. I lived in Guyana for 2 years, where my husband  and a colleague were training up village leaders from various regions to lead believers in Anglican churches. Tiny McTurk was a pioneer rancher, and he and his wife Connie established a station. Connie McTurk, wife of Tiny McTurk and mother of Diane was an old lady when we went to Guyana, and she spent most of her days gently swaying in a hammock, under the palm thatched roof, well looked after by the household.  Her pleasure was to watch the comings and goings of these delightful birds,  We received a radio message one day from Diane to say that her mother had died during the night, with Diane by her side.  John took the funeral, and that gracious and valiant woman who had accompanied her husband to a life devoid of many luxuries, but full of adventure.  She was buried just yards from the house.

A hot day and a walk through the lovely Sussex countryside

David and Goliath...a sketch from the story in the Bible for use in the Kids work at the Point Church.

We love to have holidays in the sun, and this is a sketch from Garachica, Spain where I sketched the scene in the town square several years ago.

Annai airstrip in Guyana.  To reach remote villages, small planes, landrovers and bark canoes were used.  

We were living in London when the year 2000 happened, and celebrated with thousands of revellers by going to the centre to watch the fireworks on the banks of the Thames, and in Trafalgar Square.  We visited the Millenium Dome several times, with relations and friends, and it was full of life, interesting exhibitions, and a spectacular musical extravaganza.  I couldn’t capture the excitement and the movement and colour but the rapid sketches do take me back to that vast and exciting space.

A visit to France for the wedding of John’s French godson in Saint Loubes in 2008 allowed time to walk through the lovely countryside, where the grapes were ripening, promising a good vintage for the wine makers.

Diane McTurk saved three orphaned giant otter pups from a hunter who would have sold them for their skins, and named them Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.  The pups repaid the kindness by visiting their saviour often, and swimming with Diane in the Rupununi river.  As they grew, visitors to the ranch, hearing the high pitched screeches as the animals raced from the river up the path, drew their feet into the hammocks to avoid having the creatures bite the rubber flip-flops and any toes or fingers which were poking out!

John writes: Anne made this picture as part of a series for December’s ‘Nativity Hunt’ in St John’s Park, Burgess Hill arranged by The Point Church in which people searched out her hidden laminated nativity characters to win goody bags. This is a picture of Mary and Joseph pausing on the journey to Bethlehem which captures St Joseph’s care for the Mother-to-be of the Lord.

Lockdown combined with glorious weather in Spring took me outdoors to walk through Sussex’s lovely woods, downs and lanes, picking wild flowers then attempting to depict them in watercolour.  What a treasure we have all around us, and being given the time to enjoy it was a rare treat. 

John writes: My wife Anne produced this watercolour for a seasonal church event. It’s a shepherdess breaking with traditional images of ‘shepherds in the fields abiding’. It captures maternal care helping us ponder our best care of animals, God’s care of us and our care for one another. I write as Anne’s - alas not so maternal - carer due to her breaking her shoulder in a fall last Monday from which she is in recovery. We are both grateful to the National Health Service for their care and for literal support in the form of a Velcro sling.

‘Sing choirs of angels! Sing in exultation! Sing all ye citizens of heaven above’. Anne captures this joy in her water colour, part of a sequence on the Christmas story prepared for last week’s ‘Nativity Hunt’ organised by The Point Church. Her laminated nativity characters were hidden around St John’s Park in Burgess Hill awaiting discovery by participants. 

John writes: ‘Anne just painted this toucan she sketched years back in Georgetown Zoo. In her sketch she captures this literally larger than life bird with its scary beak which finds a home in Guyana’s rainforest. The toucan is famous in the UK and beyond for use in ‘It's a lovely day for a Guinness’ adverts by John Gilroy from the 1930s. The bird is shown smiling serenely with two pints of Guinness balanced on its giant beak.’

On a package holiday to Taba, Egypt some years ago, I sketched the camels who were giving rides to tourists in Sinai.  The bulk of the supercilious beasts was impressive, and the saddles and halters padded with woven cloths added to the interest.  For thousands of years these ships of the desert have served their humans as beasts of burden, appearing in Bible stories, and nativity scenes. 

I sketched this parrot in Guyana.  A man came through Yupukari village one day, having hunted wild parrots and was on his way to sell them in Georgetown.  He tethered the 10 birds in the top of a tall palm, and seeing the fluttering birds lit up by the sun looked as though the palm had burst into living blossoms.  Next day he hitched a lift in a pickup truck to sell his wares in town (those who had survived the capture). 

This is the an illustration of Bible story of Blind Bartimeus of Jericho.  Both Mark and Luke tell of the miracle they witnessed when a man reduced to begging, heard that Jesus was coming to the town.  The rumours of Jesus’ ability to restore sight, hearing, and many other diseases sparked faith in Bartimeus, and despite the crowds pressing around Jesus, he shouted, “Jesus, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me!” The crowd tried to shut Bartimaeus up, but Jesus stopped and said, “What do you want me to do for you?”  And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight”. Jesus said to him, “Go your way, your faith has made you well.”  And immediately he recovered his sight, and followed Jesus on his way.