Steamy Catskill Days

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How does one start a Sunday in the Catskills? At the Thomas Cole house in Catskill of course, followed by an ice cream at the Candy Man in town, served by my very own niece, Erika!

Thomas Cole changed the course of painting in America. Previously considered the lowest of painting genres (#1 was portrait painting, #2 historical or genre painting, #3 still life and last but not least, came landscape painting) landscape painting was now elevated and revered.

He taught Asher B. Durand and Frederick Church. Sadly he died at the age of 47, but in that time period left a legacy of paintings.

Cole depicted the wild American landscape, and man's status and place in all of it. He also painted allegories and communicated the spirit of God in his work.

The first photograph is looking out to the Catskills from the interior of the Cole house. The ripples are from the old glass, not from photoshop. The second is a rare glimpse of Cole's mid 1800's artists studio. I do not have a mono pod and this was the only photograph that was not blurred as I was working with existing light as I so often do.

We were rushed through the house faster than my eyes and mind could absorb the art and decorative works, but I guess they make the tours for the general public, not for connoisseurs and aficionados of Hudson Valley art, decorative arts, and architecture.

We closed the day with a pool party at a friend's house complete with croquet. We had to leave when some horrid bug or pollen made me rip out one of my contacts and throw it away, and I was dizzy from seeing out of one eye...and the heat.

To the magic of the Catskill Mountains, Patti

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