MONO MONDAY - THE BIG PICTURE

When our boys were much younger, we used to go on holiday with friends to Bonchurch, a pretty little village on the Isle of Wight.

We stayed at Westfield Holiday Park, where we always had bungalows next door to one another - the children would run in and out so we always knew that if they weren’t in with us, they would be in next door.  We had some great times and have many stories to tell - which, incidentally, our grandchildren like to hear, especially the one about when I threw the ice cream cone in the gutter!

The first year we were there, our friends bought an oil painting from "The Pond", the little Post Office on the right of the picture, and so called because the pond is just across the road.  From memory, they were £35 but at that time we just couldn’t afford to buy one - if we had, we couldn’t have afforded food for the week!  I was very disappointed, but we decided that we would save hard, and buy one the next year - and we did.  In those days - the early 1970s it was quite something to spend that much money on an oil painting but this was money well spent and it has brought back such happy memories for us, and has done over the years.

The man who ran the Post Office told us that S.G. Feary, who painted this and several others displayed there, used to go over for a holiday, paint the pictures and then they would be displayed for sale and always sold out!  This one was painted in 1979, when our sons would have been 8 and 5 years old.

We also have a line drawing of the same view, but we much prefer the oil painting.  There is another story too about a lamp post which overhung the pavement at the bottom - Mr. HCB was reversing our car and scraped the nearside back wing all along this lamp post - not something he likes to be reminded of!

Over two years ago, Naturelover posted a picture of Bonchurch, painted in 1859 by Jasper Francis Cropsey.  When I saw it, I told her one day that I would post my oil painting - so this is not only for Mono Monday, but also for her - and I have put the colour one in as an extra.

“Memory is a way 
     of holding onto
          the things you love,
               the things you are,
                    the things you never 
                         want to lose.”
Kevin Arnold