A Landscape Painting To Love

I am delighted to report that David and I just purchased our first "serious" landscape painting. The cheque is in the mail, and I can't wait for it to arrive. I love the piece because it reminds me of the rural, heavily forested area of eastern Canada where I grew up.

The scene feels familiar to me. It feels like home. I also love that it is a traditional landscape, which I admire just as much as I do the more abstract, modern art I've always coveted.

The painting is a small landscape, in oil, by a well-regarded east coast American artist named Al Barker. Although Al specializes in miniatures (e.g. 4x11), the piece we bought is fairly large at 8x16.

According to the gallery, Al has won over fifty major awards at premier art competitions throughout the United States and is listed in "Who's Who in American Art." Al is a member of the prestigious Salmagundi Art Club of New York.

If you recall, in May I purchased two of Al's miniature seascapes (which I posted about here) for a fantastic price:

I later learned (through a dealer who knows Al) that these (numbered) paintings were done in the 1970's and were originally sold at auction at the Salmagundi Club. They are some of his early works.

This summer, Al painted us a third seascape for our collection, at our request:

I have neglected to post about it, but will do another post soon as it is much lovelier in person and arrived beautifully framed. The seascape trio make quite a striking set.

(Interestingly, if you look at the last post, you will see this little painting reflected in the mirror above my sideboard!)

In the meantime, I can't wait to bring home our new landscape painting. Hopefully it will be the beginning of a lifelong collection...