Jantien's sculptures

For three very special days, this (above) was the view from my kitchen window.


This was thanks to Jantien (above - the link is to her website), a remarkable, talented and generally lovely-to-know young woman sculptor( 'she's splendid,' said my sister, 'like a sun-face.') who drove all the way from Amsterdam in Yip the Yellow Van with six pieces of her work (and a seventh which we were buying from her, more on that anon) simply to enhance our lives immeasurably by putting them in our garden. This was one of the reasons Tom was getting a move on with the terrace this summer. We had worked and worried quite hard about this, but I really did not expect the lurch of excitement I felt when she began to unpack them.



Above was the view going up the steps to the house (which nobody fell down).

There were five sculptures on the terrace itself: above is 'The Queen of the Sea', in serpentine with a chalkstone base,

next to which was 'Blackbird Flight'(above), also chalkstone (I think),



on the other side was 'Iris' in serpentine(above), I had seen this one in the making the first time I met Jantien, she told me how it was inspired partly by her baby niece of the same name, with elements of the flower and the eye;

in the centre was 'Leaves'

and in front of that the chalkstone swan. Jantien is big on swans. Then there was one more in the apse at the end of the lawn ( both 'apse' and 'lawn' are somewhat grandiose words in the context, but the only ones available),




which was the marble swan (above).


Though they are glorious forms seen as a whole, they also need to be experienced more intimately and, naturally, touched.






Yet 'The Queen of the Sea' I found very photogenic,




And 'Iris', who is, of course, also the rainbow, contains a wealth of colour and pattern.

One of my great pleasures was to walk among them early in the morning,


and see them in the rosy first sunlight, when they were beaded with dew.

***

It all started with the alabaster swan. This was Tom's birthday present ( partly from me, partly from 'ourselves'). It was suggested that he wait until the day of the party to unwrap it, but neither he nor Jantien could be doing with such deferred gratification, and he fell to unwrapping it with much excitement.


It was the time of the afternoon when the sunlight slants through the dining room window, and it lit up the sepia veining in the alabaster in an almost unearthly way.

For the first time, I think, I had an inkling how people can become obsessed almost to madness with a beautiful object.