One day I was wandering aimlessly around eBay, looking for something, and I found just that. It was a small painting of Lake San Cristobal, lovely little jewel of a lake in the San Juan Mountains of central Colorado.
The eBay seller was presenting it as being by an unknown artist named Ciaya Van Waning. Hmmm, Van Waning, that seems to ring a bell. As I was examining the eBay listing and looking at the pictured signature, I realized that it wasn't Ciaya...it was Clara.
So, this wonderful little painting wasn't by unknown artist Ciaya Van Waning, but instead was painted by virtually unknown artist Clara Van Waning.
Clara Van Waning is unknown in the art community, but readers of literature on the American West will recognize Clara as the artistic sister of Lyle Van Waning in "The Meadow," James Galvin's true life account of life in the lonely wilds of northern Colorado. Clara left the Neversummer Mountains and the ranch life, only to commit suicide.
So I have a wonderful little painting that I paid all of 8 dollars for...which is $2.50 more than Clara's handwritten price on the back. If Clara Van Waning had been famous in the art circles I could refer to some sort of catalogue of her works and maybe even find out when she painted Lake San Cristobal. But there is no record such as that. If there is someone out there with that knowledge hopefully they'll leave a comment to this blog post.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Clara Van Waning at Lake San Cristobal
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3 comments:
It was interesting to read your note.
My in laws just passsed away. My mother in law was from Colorado.
We found 3 clara vanwaning pictures. One of San Cristobal, one of "a copy of another artist, G.W. Turners' Silvery Divide,and one untiled of a wolf or cyote.
We really like her paintings.
How did you find out she had commited suicide and what years did she paint? If you know.
All I really know about her is what you can read in "The Meadow." Her suicide is part of the book.
I wrote this blog post, over two years ago now, in hopes that someone who knew more about her art would find it and pass along some info, but you're the first to leave any sort of comment.
So it seems her art really is unknown. But I like my little piece and you like yours and I guess that'll have to do.
My mother just passed away and in her things we found two very small watercolors painted by Clara Van Waning. I remember them from when I was a small child over 50 years ago, but my mother had put them away. My mother was born in Fort Collins, CO, and her family ranched around the CO/WY area. I was researching the artist's name and found the reference to the book "The Meadow". I have ordered the book and look forward to reading it.
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