She was my Van Gogh

You may not know or have ever heard of the artist, but in my eyes she was one of the most talented  and inspiring artist I ever knew. Her name was Zadie Harrigill, and she was my mother. I can remember her painting for hours on end, with her oil palette in one hand and her brush in the other. I would watch her mix the colors and stroke her brush on her canvas reviling something that looked so real, as if you were there in her paintings. 

 There were always a lot of paint tubes and different size brushes surrounding her easel, and of coarse the smell of the linseed oil always filled the air in the room in which she painted. 
When I was around ten years of age, she did a whole mural on a wall at a dentist office in Dallas, Texas. I never got to see that mural, and to this day have often wondered if its still exists .

My mother was also the inspiration in my own love for drawing all through school . I would enroll in Art classes every year during high school and still love to draw from time to time. One of my own daughters took after her grandmother with the love of art and took Art classes while attending college.  
I want to share just some of my mothers master pieces. ( You can click on any of them to enlarge). These aren't all that she painted, there were many more. The value on them are priceless to the owners and cherished in memory by her loved ones to pass on in generations to come. She will never be famous in the Art world or have her paintings desired by collectors, but she will always be remembered in her love to draw and paint. She was my Van Gogh.
This painting was given to me after the birth of my first daughter. That was thirty six years ago and still hangs in my home. How was she to know that this painting would reflect a likeness to her own great granddaughter many years later who was born many years after her passing. A premonition perhaps! I never knew the name of this painting except that my mother always called it "Precious". 

 

This was a painting my mom did of Mt. Fuji and was given to her parents , along with two Oil paintings of Mt St. Helen's Mountains.

 This one was a scene from Maine.

This one was a New England scene that Mother painted for her mother and father. 

 This is the painting mother gave to my Brother and his wife and hangs in their Florida home. And the drawing she did in pencil, of the soldier, was given to him many years ago by her.

 These  two, drawn in charcoal by mother in the early 80's, were done for my husband.

 

My sister, Margie and her husband, Scott came last Christmas and had this framed for my husband. It was our Mothers last drawing that my sister had in some of Moms belongings. She thought Mom was drawing it for my husband since he loves horses. It is dated 1997, so that would have been right before she remarried Fred. It is done in pencil. This was a special gift that James and I will cherish forever.