Tuesday, August 11, 2009

A Donation of Paintings

Recently, we donated several of Dad's paintings to the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Foundation.  They have an excellent collection, mostly of New Mexico artists, spread through the various hospital, classroom, and out-patient buildings.  Garo Andreasian, Joe Novak, Tony Evanko, and myself are some of the artists, but there are many more.

Dad did, in fact, paint in New Mexico during the summer of 1948, when he studied with Louis Ribak (on the G.I. Bill).  This was the summer after Mom and Dad married, so their months in Taos were like a honeymoon.  They met many people in the Taos art community and began a long friendship with Louis and his wife, Beatrice Mandelman.  That summer, Dad painted many watercolors, which survived in a portfolio, and some of them have been given to the UNM collection also.   Another is displayed in the New Mexico Capitol Collection; you can see it if you visit that great collection in the Roundhouse.

Here, I've published an acrylic abstract titled "Of Sea and Weather" probably dating from the 1970's or 80's.  The weather Dad had in mind seems to be calm and overcast, possibly foggy.  I love the grave serenity of this painting.