Monday, April 27, 2009

Sunshine and Haze - Charles Courtney Curran


I am so grateful to my mother for filling the home we grew up in with paintings. I can remember sitting at the dining room table, in the living room, or (in the case of the above painting) in the bathroom, staring at and absorbing all these wonderful pictures. There was no modern art, all the paintings that my mom had were the sort that set fire to the imagination, made you ask all sorts of questions. Mostly natural scenes, they were full of life and light. They were of places that I just had to see. As a teenager I was half in love with the woman in this painting (the sweep of her hair, her flushed cheeks, and that dress!) but more than that, I was desperate to sit on that cliff, or one just like it. And since that time, I have; and I appreciated it all the more because of the desire that was born in me so many years ago by this painting.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

that was one of my favorite ones too. I spent a lot of time in the downstairs bathroom trying to figure out where in NJ she was. (the world is small to the young)
Joshua

Anonymous said...

Somehow i forgot where i was able to buy this print in college........i just loved it........and now it's destroyed by mold from my basement........now that i have a home to properly appreciate it, i'd love to know where i can purchase one....I even called the school museum where they have the original.......sigh....

Maryl said...

I was researching this painting, as I have the printing hanging in my BATHROOM also... and when I returned from my first trip to France I thought the print reminded me of the Auvergne countryside. WHERE is this painted, as the blogger indicates he sat on the cliff, too. why did n't you tell us where it is?