Old Friends
Holiday time is always a joyous time, when we renew our relationships with friends and family over tablefuls of food, surrounded by the lights of the season.
We recently spent an afternoon with my long time friend Noelle (from my Maxwell House days), her husband Michael, and two kids, at their home for our annual holiday lunch. (Ok, one kid is was still finishing up a basketball game…)
After checking out the Christmas decorations and dropping Bonnie’s Nicoise salad in the kitchen, I wandered into the family room and discovered one of my favorite landscape paintings hanging in a place of honor over the fireplace.
I was delighted that this pre-dessert oil painting, Provence, had found such a beautiful home in this bright, cheery, elegant room!
As an artist, after you part with a painting, you wonder where it’s going to hang. While I frequently ask for photos, it isn’t often that I receive them. In this case, I just walked in, and found my Provence cityscape in this perfect setting. Somehow it’s very satisfying to see, and brings the whole process to closure.
This landscape (or should I say cityscape?) painting of a village in Provence was inspired by our trip the south of France a few years after we were married.
Believe it or not, I had forgotten about the painting in the excitement of inspecting the holiday decorations. When we first arrived, I simply had to check out the Christmas decorations. Michael erects a beautiful village on the piano every year. I am always mesmerized by the tiny, glowing buildings he carefully arranges.
Then I was distracted by the plethora of food being prepared in the kitchen. (Maybe there’s a future painting in that colorful platter… Noelle’s inner artist came out.)
And of course I couldn’t resist trying to get a decent photo of Max and Chloe (trying is the operative word). Both English Bulldogs are much cuter in person.
It’s not surprising that I forgot about my landscape painting with all the wonderful distractions. Back to the painting for a moment. Provence was painted in the early 80s when I was experimenting with a palette knife together with brushes. The palette knife gives the painting a whole different feeling, and enriches the surface with texture.
You can see how loose my brushstrokes were back then too. So those of you who wondered what some of my pre-dessert days looked like, now you have a sample.
While I was communing with my painting, lunch preparations were completed and we sat down to this bountiful table. We stayed there for a few hours while downing delicious food and enjoying very lively conversation!
During the holidays, there’s nothing like getting together with old friends. This time I’m talking about the people and the painting!