Today is the birthday of Maxfield Parrish, an artist whom I adore for his ability to tell story in paint, and for his unabashed romanticism that hardly ever feels sentimental to me. It just feels… deep and mysterious and lovely and true. I’ve loved his work since I first discovered it at the age of 13 or 14. I wish I could live in some of his paintings. And my favorite color of sky is Maxfield Parrish blue.
Happy birthday, Maxfield! Thank you for your work that has become such a part of me. Isn’t it amazing, that we can do that for each other?
Write-a-thon running total: 10,540 words out of 12,000. This is the last week of the Write-a-thon, and my goal is in sight. Thank you to everyone who has sponsored me and all the other writers. And we’re not done yet — if you know anyone who wants to support great writing in the world, please send them to Clarion West to make a donation to encourage any of these fine writers to keep heading towards the finish line. So many amazing novels and stories are being born right now because of your help!
I love his stuff since I was bout 14 too. And MP blue as well.
Not sure I understand your comment, “romanticism that hardly ever feels sentimental to me” though. You’ve made comments in this vein before – sentimentality as something negative. Why is it negative? Prompted me to look it up just now, and I was a little surprised at the definition I found that included sadness in it. I wouldn’t have said that, but I didn’t write the dictionary. : ) It also said “self indulgent”. Not the worst thing in the world IMO. Here’s the part I did agree with — “sentimental value: the value of something to someone because of personal or emotional associations rather than material worth.”
Anyway, yep, love his work. Thanks for reminding me and celebrating him.
And congratulations on all of those words!