Thursday, September 10, 2009

I found it!

One of my dreams is to have a piece of art from every place I've lived (Greensboro, Boone, Long Island, NYC). I don't have any pieces yet but that doesn't mean I haven't been looking. These decisions take me a while as I want to be sure that I really love something before it becomes a permanent fixture in my home. I also have to have one of my famous "Ah-ha!" moments, where I know completely that this is IT. (Does anyone else have those moments or rely on them to make decisions?)

I've been looking for oh so long for my Long Island piece. Occasionally I would search LI paintings on the internet or window shop in Huntington. It wasn't until last week when I was visiting Ginna that I found it! While she was at work, I went into DC to visit museums and art galleries. I was at the Smithsonian American Art Museum exploring an exhibit featuring paintings from the Public Works of Art, a recovery program FDR formed in the Great Depression era.

It was an excellent exhibit and I was in there for quite a while listening to Bach and Yo-Yo Ma on my iPod, which was pretty much amazing. Then I happened upon it: a painting called Racing by Gerald Sargent Foster. He was an avid yachtsman and in this work, he painted a yacht race on the Long Island Sound. I stood there for a good, long while looking at it and just knew that I wanted this to be my LI painting. I raced (ha) to the gift shop and information desk asking if they had a print for sale, but no such luck. I'm hoping I can find it online somewhere. But isn't it grand? I would often take the boys to the beach and we would pass over the Sound on our way to Lloyd Harbor, so this seems appropriate.

3 comments:

Suz said...

This looks familiar! I think my mother in law sent me a card on it - will check to see if I still have it. Maybe you could frame that?

Nico said...

What, no painting for Clearwater??

Unknown said...

I TOTALLY have the "ah-ha" moments! I don't know if you remember the two big canvases kathy and i had in our living room (above the keyboard, on the wall facing you if you walk out of the kitchen- one was a New York lady and one a Paris lady) but I had been looking and looking and looking for something for those walls and then when I was in Nashville for the 1/2 marathon I was walking down the street with Em and Zana and Gretch looking at the cute stores and there on the sidewalk were the two pieces that belonged on my wall in my Brooklyn apartment- those two. I just KNEW they belonged. I was all, oh man, but how will I ever get these home to NYC?? And thankfully I was able to bargain with the lady at the store to throw in shipping for free if I bought both! Wahoo! So yes, I identify with this story. :)