Riverdene, in Cookham, not only appears in some of the Royal Academician s works but was also home to racing daredevil Sir Algernon Guinness.
The buyers of Riverdene, in Cookham, Berkshire, will wake up every morning to the views that moved Royal Academician Sir Stanley Spencer. This whitewashed house with a Parisian feel, which is for sale through Hamptons at a guide price of £4.5 million, stands on the banks of the Thames, next to the 12th-century village church.
Spencer was so enamoured of Cookham, where he had been born in 1891, that it called it ‘a village in heaven’ and spent the years before and after the First World War painting landscapes and biblical scenes set – somewhat incongruously but beautifully –against the backdrop of the local churchyard and the surrounding countryside.
“King in the Wilderness” at 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 26,
online. The documentary chronicles the final chapters of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life. Free.
• Warwick’s bookstore presents author
Lauren Willig at 5 p.m. Monday, March 1, online. The ticketed event launching Willig’s new book, “Band of Sisters,” and celebrating Women’s History Month with Marie Benedict, Kristin Harmel and Vanessa Riley, includes a copy of the book, an autographed bookplate, a gift and shipping. $35.
• La Jolla LearningWorks presents
“How to Get Your Child to Listen to the Important Things You Say” at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 2, online. Marla Flores will discuss conversation approaches and how to individualize them for children. Free.
Last modified on Mon 15 Feb 2021 03.02 EST
I’ve thought about it a lot in the intervening 40 years: why Adam and the Ants? I was a prime candidate for obsessive pop fandom – nine years old, glued to Top of the Pops on a weekly basis, an early adopter of Smash Hits, already spending whatever money I had on records – but why them specifically? After all, I was spoilt for choice. It was 1980, as miraculous a year for singles as Britain has ever seen. I could have alighted on the two-tone movement, or Gary Numan, or thrown in my lot with the Jam and the burgeoning mod revival. But I didn’t: it was Adam and the Ants, the night in October they opened TOTP with Dog Eat Dog.
Jesus Calms the Storm
“The need to see yourself in your chosen religion is not a trivial thing,” says Laura James, a New Yorkbased painter and illustrator. “With my work I am trying to offer an alternative to the ‘traditional’ images we find in Western religious art.”
Perhaps the most striking element of
Jesus Calms the Storm is her depiction of Jesus and His disciples. For anyone used to religious art depicting Christ and His followers as Anglo-Saxon in look, her portrayal of characters as dark-skinned individuals may be jarring to some but carries profound meaning.
“I grew up attending a Brethren church with my Caribbean family in Brooklyn, New York. We were not allowed to image Bible characters, and there was no art on the walls,” she says. “However, we did have children’s Bibles filled with fantastic images! Although surrounding characters were light brown in color, perhaps reflecting Middle Eastern people, Jesus was unbelievably White, with blond hair an
“I think keeping busy and doing things with our hands has never been as important as it is at the moment.
“Taking some time away from our screens to do something physical is so crucial - be it writing, drawing, making a collage or just sending a nice card to a friend you’ve not seen for ages.”
While lockdown restrictions have unfortunately forced him to shut his physical shop for the time being, David, like many other independent businesses, is still running his shop online for the time being.
“It’s a great time to shop local and support your high street, even with our shops being closed. We’re still here, operating online and looking for ways to support our communities better. It s been a really tough year, but the local support has been incredible.