Monday, May 31, 2010

Village and Fields, Provence

A thank you on Memorial Day to my father, and all of the other men and women who fought fascism during WWII and whose sacrifice returned the villages and fields of Europe to farmers, artists and peace.

7 comments:

Linda Popple said...

Lovely tribute! Great lively colors. I like the shadows and the wonderful, bright light.

Debbi Smith Rourke said...

AMEN! My grandfather fought in the Battle of the Bulge and returned home healthy!! This is gorgeous. Provence is one of my favorite places on earth!!!

Cathy said...

I was born and bred in Provence, and this is a great painting. The colours, the light, the shapes, this is exactly it!

Susan Abbott said...

Thank you for writing, Linda and Debbi. My father was gone for five years, but came home safely, too. He was a painter, and brought back quite a few watercolors that he had managed to do while traveling with his unit. They are mostly views of the wreckage he witnessed, though, rather than peaceful landscapes like this one.

Susan Abbott said...

Cathy, I'm glad to hear that this painting matches your memories of your home. There isn't anywhere else that has has the light, color, tastes (and even good smells! that Provence has. I think about the violence of it's past, too, when I'm there enjoying that beauty. All of those charming hill towns were built for protection in the middle ages--and you can still find bullet holes in village walls where partisans were shot during the last (and hopefully the final) world war.

Terry Banderas said...

Beautiful, Susan. Nice tribute.

Susan Abbott said...

Thanks so much, Terry.