Eltham 2018

Greetings

Last weekend I took part in the Grand Medieval Joust at Eltham Palace.

As a member of the Paladins of Chivalry, I am only allowed to take photos before the public are on site, after they have left, or if I change back into modern kit.

I was able to get a shot of my tent, banner, standard and achievement of arms when it was finally all ready, but  not, unfortunately before the Duke of Lancaster had moved his car...

Here is another picture of my tent within the camp

I spent some time in the off-season painting the dags of the roof with the bishop's mitre badges.

The bishop's livery colours are black and white and one of his main badges is a red mitre( as can be seen on the standard), so I have painted red mitres on the white dags and white mitres on the black. As there were an odd number of dags, I painted a papal tiara on a red ground to go over the doorway.

The inside of the tent is dived in two by curtains, with my sleeping area behind. 

I have a small table set up as an alter in one corner and try to sing a mass at least once during the weekend. This time I sang it on Sunday morning soon after the site opened at ten.

You will notice from the first picture that I had a fire box set up in front of the tent. I lit a fire in it using flint and steel on Saturday ( only nicking myself once on the flint) and then used a coal from the fire to light my thurible (which can be seen hanging up in this picture) so I could cense the alter and bless the weapons in the arming tent.

There was a strong breeze all day Saturday and the pile of wood only lasted to mid afternoon.

The foot tourney went well and it wasn't too hot, as the sky stayed kindly overcast. I also had a lot of fun being the marshal and commentator for the kiddies battle later in the afternoon.

I closed the tent after the tourney on Sunday and started to pack some things up, which helped a lot when it came time to break camp.

All in all it was a good show.

Until next time

Adieu

St David's Gate

Greetings

I often put interesting buildings into my Landscape of Dreams and utilise watercolours I have painted in the past,

Here is a watercolour of the gatehouse of St David's Cathedral.

I haven't reused this image in a oil painting to date, but , as an interesting building, it may well find its way into a future painting.

Until next time

Adieu

More work to painting

Greetings

I have recently done some more to the oil painting I am working on.

I have been working on shadows and distance and it now looks like this.

I will post again when I have done more to it

Until next time

Adieu

Summer

Greetings

Here is a small oil painting I did a few years ago.

I called it ' Summer'.

until next time

Adieu

Speedo

Greetings

Here is a drawing I found in one of my sketchbooks.

It is a pencil study based on a photo of a young man in a leopard-print speedo.

I used this figure as the inspiration for an acrylic painting of a superhero, who I called Icefire.

Until next time

Adieu

Misheard Words

Greetings

I was discussing Napoleonic uniform at a re-enactment fayre when a passer-by misheard the word 'gorget' .

I thought it would make a good cartoon.

If I think of any other examples, I my make this a series...

Until next time

Adieu

May Bank Holiday reenactment

Greetings


I have just been to my first camping re-enactment of the season at the Weald Park Country Fair in Essex.

Most of us arrived on site on Saturday afternoon to set up, as we were on show on the Sunday and Monday and we had most of the camp ready by the time it started to get dark.

Some more Paladins turned up on Saturday morning and we completed the camp.

We had been planning to do a dance show, archery demonstration, fight training in a small ring and a tourney in the event's main arena.

Things didn't quite turn out that way. The event was a country fair/ dog show and was somewhat haphazard regarding organisation.

They had promised us a archery range, but this was not provided. Deejay and I surveyed a possible usable site on Saturday,only to find someone parked a couple of vans in it overnight, so we had to ditch the archery.

Then we found that a wrestling ring was being set up not far from us and each bout was announced over loudspeakers with loud music, so we had to ditch the dance show as well.

It was very hot and most all of the guys spent most of the day down to poltocks and hose, but,as we were spending most of the time doing training and katas in the ring , this was (mostly) still authentic.

We armoured up for the tourney at 3.40 and I any lasted for my first fight before going down with heatstroke. The others managed to keep going through to the end of the tourney and helped me back to camp. Luckily, I' d recognised the signs and had dropped out before the full force of the heatstroke had taken effect, so I recovered quire quickly and was spared the massive headache.

We found out the the Monday would also be very hot, so I opted to try fighting in jack, collar, gauntlets and helm and, having taken the extra precaution of soaking my arming cap, I was able to fight for the whole tourney. It also meant that I could fight hand-and-a -half, which is always popular with the crowd ( big swords-big moves, lots of shouting).

I closed my tent when we got back to camp and began a bit of pack down, so had a reasonable start by the time we were declared off duty. I had the car packed by about 7.00 and stayed to help pack club kit into the van till about 7.30, so was home by 8.30.

All in all ( saving the heatstroke) it was a good event.

I have not pictures, but here is one of me fighting with hand-and-a- half at a previous event.

Until next time

Adieu