Blog

I had the pleasure during July 2026 to spend a week in Lincoln, England. It is a charming small city - home to an enormous cathedral, a one-time military castle, Roman ruins, several million pigeons with a few peregrine falcons to keep them on their toes, and some truly exceptional restaurants. My reason for being there was that the choir of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (Richmond, VA) was in residence for a week, and I happen to be married to the musician who played the organ for six evensong services and a Sunday morning one. My job was one of moral support and incidental sheet music schlepping, and my reward was a week of wonderful services while exploring a fascinating cathedral inside and out. 

Its oldest foundations and one wall date to 1072, making it a spry 954 years old. Like the castle in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, it had its share of “burned down, fell over, and sank into the swamp” misadventures - including an almost complete start over following an earthquake in 1185 - before it “stayed up." It therefore took 239 years until 1311 when the final stones were placed making it more or less what we see today. Which is spectacular. A Victorian writer named John Ruskin reportedly proclaimed, “the cathedral of Lincoln is out and out the most precious piece of architecture in the British Isles and roughly speaking worth any two other cathedrals we have."  Put that in your pipe and smoke it Westminster Abbey. 

On our day of arrival I took a couple hundred photos as reference for future paintings, and then after dinner when the light had changed to the “golden hour” I took a few hundred more. And that was just the outside. The cathedral is on the high point of land and visible for miles in all directions. I imagine that one could undertake a thousand-mile journey spiraling ever outward from it and never run out of subject material for paintings. The view for this painting is from the ramparts of Lincoln Castle to the west, and there are therefore millions of photos and probably thousands of paintings showing the cathedral from this vantage point. Still, it’s the best place within a quarter mile to view the structure as a whole. 

Aside: Lincoln is in the part of England called the Midlands. I cannot speak for all the Midlands, but I will observe that the shopkeepers and restaurant workers in Lincoln greet you with charming grace. “Hello, my love, let me know if you need anything.” “Would you like some dessert, my darlings?" “Ah, yes, my lovely, those shirts are two for one this week.” I have long been oblivious to the Honey and Sweety one hears in  American venues and would be willing to move to Lincoln solely for the superior terms of endearment in the shops and cafes. 

Enough history and local flavor: as painting subjects go, cathedrals provide unique challenges because while massive they are unbelievably detailed. I rarely combine watercolor with pen and ink, but for my first Lincoln portrait the pen became necessary to even begin to address the detail part. This may change in future paintings as I become braver in my willingness to go the “use big brushes and only suggest nuances” route. This will likely include paintings of the cathedral interior. Having been in there at all hours of the day means tons of other reference photos with all kinds of different lighting. It’ll be fun. I hope you like this one.