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Wednesday Art: Bathroom and Bedroom

January 29, 2020 at 9:37 am by Claudia

It’s cold out there but the sun is shining. Huzzah!

My Skype sessions went well yesterday. I have two more this afternoon. The connection was great and it really was as if I was in the room with each of the actors. No complaints here.

Random art from around the house:

In the upstairs half bath. (There’s a lot more there, but the sun coming from the east made it impossible to take a picture. More later.)

I combined these framed pieces because their frames were so similar. The framed landscape with “Trust in the name of the Lord” was my grandmother’s. I cannot remember a time it wasn’t hanging in one of her spare bedrooms. I’m sure it’s much older than I. It’s a bit fragile nowadays, and priceless.

I found the other print just last year in an antique shop. I have a fondness for these circa 40s-50s flower prints. I have another in the downstairs bathroom. This one drew me in because of the brown background, the beautiful flowers, and the frame.

Our plan is to cover these walls with all sorts of framed pieces. We already have a contract that Don signed when one of his songs sold, an award that he received, a costume rendering for a costume I wore in grad school (designed by my friend, Richard,) the signed program from King Lear starring Ian McKellen, and two other pieces that I’ll show you soon.

And this, in our bedroom:

This is a large painting and it lives on the enclosed chimney that extends into the room. I knew as soon as I saw it that it should go there. It’s an oil painting that I found in San Diego at Vignettes. I was out there temporarily about 10 years ago, coaching the Shakespeare Summer Rep, and every time I visited Vignettes, I would stare at it. It was more than I wanted to spend, or at least, felt I could spend at the time. Lori, the owner, would chat with me about it, so she knew how much I loved it. After a couple of months, I took a picture of it and sent it to Don, wanting to get his input. Finally, with his support, I made the decision to buy it and I drove to Vignettes. It was on the wall behind the cash register. When I told Lori that I finally was going to buy it, she said she had been thinking about me because it had been purchased the day before and all Lori could think about while she was completing the sale was how sad I was going to be. But the person buying it was also interested in another piece and ended up going with that one and my cherubs stayed safely in the shop.

Whew!

I almost lost it. I took it back to the apartment, hung it over the fireplace, and when it was time to go back home, I had it packed and shipped. Another lesson in “If you really want it, don’t wait too long, it could disappear.”

I love, love, love it.

Happy Wednesday.

Tuesday Thoughts

January 28, 2020 at 9:59 am by Claudia

I quickly took this photo this morning, not realizing until I took it that we’re coming up on the fourth anniversary of Scout’s passing. I know because it was less than four months after I lost my dad.

Can’t go there right now. I just read the post I wrote the day after Scout died and was in tears.

Let’s see. What’s new? Not a whole lot, though today and tomorrow, I have Skype coaching sessions with the cast of Jane Eyre. Fingers crossed that we have a good connection! Most of the afternoon today will be devoted to checking in with the actors. Next week, I drive back to Hartford for the day to watch a run-through. The following week, I go back for one night to watch a preview and give notes the next day. And then I’m done.

I’m reading The Night Circus, which I find utterly fascinating. It’s very different than my usual fare and I’m enjoying the change of pace.

I had to call our local post office and complain about one of the carriers yesterday and I never like doing that. Our main carrier is wonderful. The guy who substitutes for her is nice, as well. He always delivers the mail on Monday. I was expecting a priority mail package yesterday. I took note of the time he delivered mail across the street and quickly calculated that he’d be coming by our house in 2 or 2 1/2 hours. I told Don that I was going to be on stand-by around that time because I knew the box was too big for our mailbox and for some reason, I didn’t trust that this particular carrier would deliver it. Sure enough, when he approached our mailbox, he put envelopes in our mail box and started to drive on. I ran outside and sprinted toward his truck. He had just finished putting mail in our neighbor’s box and was starting to drive away. I was shouting loudly (all that voice training pays off) and he heard me and stopped, pulling up in our neighbor’s driveway. When I asked him if he had a package for me, he pulled it out of the truck, saying that he was wary of driving up our driveway. There’s no snow. No ice. The driveway was totally clear. It’s just a gentle slope. And he’s done it before. I assured him he could drive up there, turn around at the top and go back down quite easily. He thanked me for stopping him and I moved on. I would have let it go at that point, but when I went to the mailbox to get the rest of the mail, I discovered that he hadn’t even left a yellow slip saying that he had attempted delivery. That’s what did it for me. How would I have known what happened to the package? And it had a tracking number on it, so it was clearly supposed to be delivered that day.

I called the post office and explained the whole thing, making sure to say that he’s a nice guy and please don’t be too hard on him, but really…that was ridiculous. Our usual mail carrier will often pull up to the box, tap on the horn, and wait for me to emerge from the house. Or, if we’re not there, she’ll pull up in the driveway and leave the package on the porch. I told the supervisor that we’re semi-retired and there’s almost always someone here.

Anyway, the supervisor was kind and understanding and assured me he’d be gentle with the carrier. Gosh, I hate complaining about anyone.

Sigh.

It’s not like we live on top of a mountain, although it feels that way sometimes when we’re shoveling snow!

Okay. Hopefully, that won’t happen again.

Happy Tuesday.

Art: Living Room

January 27, 2020 at 9:58 am by Claudia

Monday morning – a cloudy one, at that. Most of the snow has melted because of a combination of warmer temperatures and rain. That’s good and bad. Good because the young deer can eat our grass on the front lawn again. They like to feed there during the winter. Bad because it looks gray and blah out there again. The snow was pretty!

I know, be careful what you wish for, Claudia!

More artwork, this time we’re back in the living room.

You know all about our vintage lithograph on the left. We purchased it on our first Paris trip and finally had it framed this year. We are completely besotted by it. It’s an ad for a coffee that was made by monks and this particular illustrator loved to use children in his work. It’s delightful, it makes us smile, it’s a tangible memory of Paris, it’s in French…what more could we want?

Next to it, one of my two vintage Maxfield Parrish prints. These are not modern reproductions, they’re vintage prints that were sold soon after Parrish painted them for publication. I have loved his work for years, dreamed of owning one of his creations, and it was only in the past 8 years or so that I was able to acquire two. This was the second of the two. It’s called Dinky Bird and it was part of a commissioned set of illustrations for a volume of Eugene Field’s poems. The original oil painting was purchased by multimillionaire Henry Russell Sage, was put in storage and disappeared for years until one of his grandchildren discovered it. It was painted in 1904.

I love the colors in this one. Parrish’s blues were rich and unlike those of any other artist.

My first Parrish, found at a local antique store and part of the collection of a longtime Parrish lover, is next.

Pierrot’s Serenade, one of Parrish’s illustrations for The Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics.

Trying to capture the golds in this print and the blues in the other print is impossible via the camera. They are gorgeous. The original was painted in 1908.

It’s funny. I wanted some of Parrish’s work for so long. Now that I have these two, I don’t feel the need to collect any more.

Well, let me correct that. If I found a vintage print of The Lantern Bearers, my favorite Parrish, I’d snap it up in a second. It is simply gorgeous. So far, I have never seen one.

Okay. Business: The winner of a copy of The Overstory is Leanne Shawler. Leanne, I’m going to send an email your way, but if you see this in the meantime, send me your mailing address and I’ll pass it on to Barbara. Congratulations!

Happy Monday.

Wednesday Art: Bathroom and Bedroom

Tuesday Thoughts

Art: Living Room

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A Note

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