Chapel of the Cross, Chapel Hill

Easter Sunday, Chapel of the Cross

 I’ve painted many small watercolors on commission lately. Several of them are gifts, and so I do not feel free to post any of them until I know they are in the hands of their recipients. This painting was not a commission, but a request. Last year on Easter Sunday in Chapel Hill, I’d noticed the most wonderful flower-laden cross. I mentioned it to the owner of University Flowers and found it belongs to his church, Chapel of the Cross. As I was painting, a church member/passerby told me that just before the 9:00 service children cover the cross with flowers. I’ve now made a mental note of this so I can be on location with my camera and paints next year when this takes place.

Do any of you know why so many Episcopal churches have towers instead of steeples? Before I left Minnesota in 2003, I designed a logo for St. Marks Episcopal Cathedral, an architecturally impressive church on the fringe of downtown Minneapolis. The tower is the distinguishing feature of the architecture and so it symbolically, in fact, became the logo.