1.19.2018

in purgatory

The Snowy Path; casein tempera on panel; 10" x 8"

Today's painting is of a path through Purgatory Park in Minnetonka, Minnesota USA - on a January day with wind chill near 15 below Fahrenheit.  From the city's website: "How did Purgatory get its unusual name? As the story goes, early settlers traveling to Excelsior along an old Native American trail came to some springs around dusk. The trail was the worst they had traveled, with swampy land and a plague of mosquitoes. One of the settlers remarked, “This is hell!” “No, it’s even worse,” another replied, “It’s purgatory!” The name stuck."

2 comments:

Jan said...

Your kind of weather would certainly be purgatory for me! But your painting is superb. As much as I like your still lifes, your landscapes are my favorite!

Mary Klein said...

:) I hear you, Jan! Up here we call it 'stupid cold' with the lack of mosquitoes being the silver lining this time of year.

Thank you for the kind words and food for thought. I post a lot on Facebook and judging from my 'likes' and comments there I think other folks agree with you. However, I enjoy painting both still lifes and landscapes - there's room with each genre to be very expressive. And it's very hard to judge what collectors will want. As an artist I need to set those thoughts aside and simply create as best and as honestly I can.

Thanks again,
Mary