The New Covenant

the New Covenant
linocut ~ Teresa Newham

This year's Easter card is a celtic cross design - it has an unending knot pattern, and is roughly printed to add energy to the image.  The Cross stands for Jesus' sacrifice and the circle represents the sun (Son) rising from the dead.  The graduated tint refers to the first Covenant which God made with mankind, as described in Genesis 9:12-13:

And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth."

Another word for Covenant is Testament.  There are several more Covenants in the Old Testament - one of which, with Moses, institutes the Jewish Passover meal.  The Last Supper is itself, of course, a Passover meal, during which Jesus institutes the New Covenant.  You can read more about the signs and significance of the various Covenants here.

May you all have a blessed and peaceful Easter!

snowdrops & hellebores

Snowdrops & Hellebores
original watercolour by Teresa Newham

Snowdrops and hellebores are the first plants of the year to flower in my garden.  The hellebores start to push their way up by the end of January, reminding me to tidy away last year's foliage; the snowdrops - a relatively late variety - emerge in February.

source materials & initial sketches
© Teresa Newham

The snowdrops are particularly precious because I transplanted several clumps of them from my Dad's garden a few weeks after he died; they were flowering at the time of his funeral in early March. To me they are a sign of hope and a promise of better (and warmer) things to come.

laying out a design on Arches watercolour paper
© Teresa Newham

At one point our late winter weather was so inviting that I thought it might be possible (with the help of various layers and a pair of fingerless gloves) to venture outside and paint the flowers en plein air.  But then the snow came - several inches of it - and they disappeared completely from view . . .

basic washes of Transparent Yellow, Permanent Sap Green
and Cobalt Blue over masking fluid
© Teresa Newham

To my delight both reappeared again after the thaw; the hellebores in particular seemed to have gained a new lease of life, with so many stems branching up that I had to leave some out when deciding on the composition for the painting.

adding detail
© Teresa Newham

As ever, the final result says more about how I feel when I visit that part of the garden than any photograph could - the delicate snowdrops and the vigorous hellebores glowing as the days start to lengthen and the birdsong increases. Spring is coming!

the finished painting
© Teresa Newham