Thursday, April 9, 2009

On The Walls


Herself has been nagging at me to document our art work with the camera, and I’ve been saying “Yep, yep, I will.” For posterity, so to speak, I plan to post at least some of it here from time to time.

This is a favorite of mine, and is hanging above the computer desk, where I spend a lot of time. It’s called Waiting At The Window For You, and the artist is Neil H. Cronk, an Austin, Texas painter who spends part of his time in Mexico. We purchased this is Ajijic, Mexico about 10 years ago, when we were living there. The red chair, either overstuffed like this one or straight-backed, occurs often in Cronk’s work, along with at least one black crow, and always the melding of reality and the imagination. In Waiting, you can see the extension of the lake, mountains, and trees outside the window. I love this because it’s kind of my ideal place: a soft chair to read in, water to gaze at, a breeze coming in the window, and even a plate of food! And there’s someone to wait for. That’s such a gift.

We have two other Cronks. These are colored pencil drawings, and again there’s the red chair, and the merger of the outdoors and the indoors. The crows appear in one of the drawings, and the other has a religious theme that appears often in Mr. Cronk's art. I’m sorry that these drawings don't show up well in the photograph, because of the glass in their frames. But you get the idea.

5 comments:

  1. I like them too....We spend a lot of time looking out at our lake through our great room's many windows, so I can relate to them so much.
    I love the colors in them too!

    The Retirement Chronicles

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  2. I like these very much, especially the first one. They have a dreamy quality. I have the feeling in the first two that someone has just stepped out into another room and is coming back, but, for some reason the third feels like they've been gone for a while and they're not returning...and they left their rosary beads behind.

    Thanks to you and She for sharing your art with us!

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  3. My husband was looking at the third piece this morning and told me that it was a shrine to someone who had died, which makes my comment above seem quite asinine. I thought it was just a religious altar. But, then, that's what pretty much always happens when I try to comment on art---I end up looking foolish and wishing I had just stopped at, "I like these very much."

    *Sigh*

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  4. Beth, stop already. You got it the first time when you said "been gone for awhile and they're not returning." I do think it's some kind of a Wake scene, but it could just be an altar for a religious holiday. Quien sabe?

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  5. I LOVE Neil's work and am envious that you have 3 extraordinary pieces! I fell in love with his paintings a few years ago when I came across some of his work hanging in Kerby Lane Restaurant. They felt so mysterious and depicted the Hill Country so beautifully. I was particularly fond of a painting of twilight on top of a hill with a table that had a huge pumpkin on top of it. I think of that painting often and hope to one day purchase a piece of Neil's art!

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