While we were in Scotland we took plenty of photographs, created
thousands of memories, and wrote hundreds of blog posts detailing our every
experience. Still, when it came time to leave, we wanted
something tangible to remind us of such a special chapter of our lives. We
decided pretty easily that we wanted this souvenir to be representative artwork
of some kind. We spent the latter half of our assignment casually perusing art
galleries without ever finding anything that really made our jaws drop.
Then our
friends Pam and Fin bought two paintings from Arusha gallery down in Edinburgh
by an artist named Carl Melengari. I showed some of his work to Jonathan and we
were determined to buy a piece before moving to California.
Melengari is known
in the artistic world for his thick oil portraits and paintings of the human
form.
However, commercially he is known for his beautiful oil paintings of
various animals, such as cows, grouse, crows, deer, and the quintessentially Scottish
highland cow (pronounced ‘coo’).
Since
these animal paintings are so popular, they generally must be commissioned since
they are usually sold before he can even finish painting them. We were prepared to
buy one of his works off the gallery floor but it was pretty slim pickings. Once we knew we
would have to commission him, we were left with a few choices. Mainly, which
animal did we want?
I knew logically we should go with the highland coo since
the purpose of this purchase was to mark the time we’d spent living in the
highlands of Scotland. Still, the stag really drew me in, since it reminded me
of the enchanted Scottish forests which inspired our sons name.
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| Source: Arusha Gallery |
I talked back
and forth with one of the gallery consultants and finally we decided to go with
the coo. It was just too specific and special to pass up.
Once we had the animal
chosen, we also got to decide if we wanted portrait or landscape style (portrait),
how much hair we wanted him to have(lots!) and what colors we wanted tied in
(slate green and grey).
Once we commissioned the painting, it took nearly 4 months
to complete. Carl’s method uses such thick oil strokes that it can take forever
to dry, and since this timeline meant it would need to be shipped to the US after we left Scotland,
they wanted to be extra sure that it was completely dried before packaging it
up. Five months later we were starting to get impatient because we were just so
excited to finally see our painting!
Arusha gallery contacted us last weekend
to let us know it was on it’s way and would arrive Thursday of last week. We
got a bit panicked that it wouldn’t arrive and would be delivered while we were
in Louisiana. When the doorbell rang on Wednesday during Forest’s nap, at first
I was annoyed and worried he would wake up prematurely. But then when I saw the
postal service worker at the door I knew it was the painting! I was so relieved
to have it safely in my possession and so grateful it arrived before our trip.
I impatiently waited for Jon to get home before unwrapping it, which turned out
to be a smart move since it was heavily layered and took two of us and twenty
minutes to unveil.
Forest was a bit freaked out by the whole thing but was very
well behaved while we unpackaged it.
So….here it is:
What do you think?
P.S.
These pics were taken with my iPhone. I promise to take better pictures as soon
as we get home and get it all hung up in the living room. We didn’t want to
deal with it while we were getting ready for our trip so for now it’s bunking
in our guest room until we get home.
Beautiful...good choice!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely perfect Great choice and stunning piece.
ReplyDeleteI like it a lot!
ReplyDelete