Christmas Present

While I was pottering around today, Moonface hung my Christmas present from her on the back room wall.

It's the original of Bob Antell's picture of a little girl on the beach, a small pastel. Yes, it's representational, possibly sentimental, but I like the picture from the first time that I saw the prints. The girl is so self-possessed, so unaware, so natural and active that it's hard not to feel as she must have done at the time. Bob has captured her movement beautifully, the shadow, the blurred indistinct sea, the scuffs of sand at her feet.

And it's so British, to be playing alone on the sands not in a swimsuit or nude, but in a summer dress and woolly jumper. It's obviously not a warm day, but she's out there playing in solitude, oblivious to the world outside her body and mind.

Thank you, Moonface.
Thank you, Bob.

:o)