Friday Morning Update

I've been feeling weird about hanging art in the bedroom ever since we removed the strange cabinet-thing and it took me a million years to get the walls patched properly.  It's like I don't want to make extraneous nail holes in my beautiful patch job.  But I woke up this morning and I decided I needed to just get something done, and so I did this:

Do excuse the natural Pacific Northwest lighting, as always.  We live in a state of perpetual twilight.  Also, the sheet-- I know it's hanging out under the scalloped edge of the quilt.  But I'm not perfect and this blog is about REAL TALK, people.  

Anyhow, what you're looking at is three of my favorite pieces of art, newly hung in the corner where the gross cabinet used to be.  Let's examine:

Over my nightstand: it's really hard to see in this photo, but this is an old portrait of King Charles II as a child.  In real life, you can see that his two spaniels (Cavalier King Charles, naturally) are at his side.  According to my grandmother, her mother purchased this in New York at some point in the twenties or thirties, but nobody really knows how old it is or where it came from.  It seems to be a reproduction, though there are dimensional brushstrokes on it.  I like it because it's kind of dark and mysterious and has some family history, but it's also a painting of a cute kid and some dogs.  Win-win.

The top painting in the gold frame on the window wall is also really special to me.  The same great-grandmother who bought Charles II's portrait was also an accomplished painter.  She painted this view of the gates of the Country Club of Virginia at some point in the fifties.  As it happens, she didn't care for the painting, and she never finished it.  If you look closely between the red-flowering tree and the left-hand brick pillar, you'll see it's blank canvas with just the rough undersketch of the fence she was going to paint there.  I'm not sure why I find its unfinished-ness so appealing.  I just do.  Plus it's a beautiful painting of a place I grew up seeing.  Win-win-win.

Finally, the bottom painting is one of my favorite things in the entire world.  It's the boathouse at my family's place on the Chesapeake Bay.  Ray and I were married on the lawn of that house, and my view during the ceremony was pretty much that exact view of the boathouse.  This painting was done years before the wedding by my friend Hunter.  In college (or maybe right after?) my best friends and I had gone to spend a weekend at the house, and Hunter, who is obviously a very talented painter, set up an easel on the dock and painted this en plein air on a Saturday morning.  It reminds me of so many things: being young and silly with my friends, my favorite place anywhere ever, my family, my home.  AND it's beautiful.  AND it was painted by one of my all-time favorite people.  Win-win-win-win.

Boy, from this angle Charles II just looks like a solid-black piece of canvas in a gold frame-- maybe he needs to be cleaned.  

Anyhow, there's more art to hang in here, plus curtains to replace and baseboards to install, but we're making progress.  Also, side note: I like those pillows on the bed MUCH better when the flame-stitching is vertical on one and horizontal on the other.  I don't know why.  Thoughts on asymmetrical throw pillows?