The Mary House (Notre Dame Academy)

$950.00

ABOUT THE HUNT COLLECTION

It is true that inspiration comes constantly and unexpectedly, but there are ideas that inspire me which are longer lasting than than a momentary joy in the color of a shadow. The mainstays of inspiration I’ve found throughout my life have come from literature like Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, C. S Lewis, and Francis Thompson, and the land of Hunt Country, Virginia. 

The aspect of this literature that continually intrigues me is their ability to articulate experiences and how we remember them- and how that effects our future. Ernest Hemingway wrote about America while he resided in Paris. Similarly, I painted the Hunt Collection after I had lived there; away from it and remembering it. The idea is that you’re able to articulate something more accurately when you’re outside of it. 

This concept is layered into my work and my practice. I found I was living out this concept particularly through this collection. I felt as though I loved the area more for being away from it. This Virginian land is a gracious land. I love how the road gallops along the edges of the fields – every so often arched by gracious boughs of leaves—creating momentary shelter before bursting out into the sunshine of the wide open fields.These memories and this land are precious building blocks for my future and how I see the world around me- where ever life will take me.


ABOUT THE PAINTING
As you drove up to my high school, the sun on the columns was the first view of the day ahead. I loved the way the light hit the Mary House, and often thought about drawing them. I finally did. It’s one of my favorite pieces in the collection for it’s dramatic light on the facade and reflected in the windows and its southern crape myrtle trees .

DIMENSIONS
16” x 20”

Original Artwork

Original art is the most valuable; the most sought after; the most desired. At our worst, we have stolen, betrayed, and killed for it. At our best, we have humbly cried before it-and it’s changed our hearts and lives and world view and perspective for the better.

In creating, the artist is imparting herself onto the paper. An artist’s hand in creating the work of art mimics our ultimate creator. In owning the original you’re owning a glimpse of the alpha. Lydia’s artwork is created on French watercolor paper with a variety of high quality pigments and brushes that are all collected in striving to imbue her paintings with a sense of the meaning that sits just beyond our gaze.