I have to draw a peacock's breast-feather, and paint as much of it [as] I can, without having heaven to dip my brush in.

This "Study of a peacock's breast feather" (1873) is an exercise in understanding by close observation and drawing. In the process, Ruskin saw that the tips of each filament were composed of "glowing" tones and "rainbow iridescence."

John Ruskin was a British polymath, and well worth getting to know. As a writer, he commanded international respect. He was an art critic and an art patron, a skilled draughtsman and talented watercolourist, and a fierce critic of prevailing social and political norms.

He wrote about nature and architecture, craftsmanship, geology, botany, Greek myth, education—a dizzying variety of subjects. Driven by his deep faith in social justice, he established the Guild of St George in the 1870s to right some of the social wrongs of the day and make England a happier and more beautiful place in which to live and work. He gave the Guild a substantial art collection for the benefit and education of the working people of Sheffield, where it thrives to this day (Guild of St. George).

Of note, he championed four great themes throughout his life, all of which are worth re-visiting for us all today:

• No wealth but life. Ruskin abhorred the bad business practices that made the rich richer yet condemned ordinary people to drudgery and poverty.

• The rural economy. Ruskin argued that work should be creative, fulfilling and rewarding.

• Not for present use alone. Ruskin was inspired by old buildings and believed we should make beautiful things that will last.

• Go to nature. For Ruskin, the natural world was the primary source of beauty, inspiration, and education, and the foundation for artistic practice.

I highly recommend a pleasant afternoon curled up by the fire reading both Ruskin’s works and the Guild of St. George website, for a lighter taste of this great thinker’s works.