Jeffery McCullough's Under a Southern Influence: Great American Art & Design : Happy Memorial Day, Happy New Year!

"I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.”

― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

I love that line. I found it in Country Living magazine a couple of summers ago, before all of the Gatsby mania currently happening, and tore it out to remind me year round of what I love about summertime and what Summer means to me. I still think of Summer the way a school kid does. For me, Summer feels more like a transition phase than the New Year. Summer is when I take time to think--plan, dream, set goals, reflect, catch up on things that I've let lapse in the last few months.

Summer is when I go to Provincetown, my favorite place on earth. Time in Provincetown is more of a retreat for me than a vacation. And it is in Summer that I allow a retreat mode of thinking to be the norm wherever I am. We are in Atlanta this weekend and the weather is exquisite with a little crispness that I love. And last night as we waited in a long line at the gelato shop around the corner from our house with a dear friend from New Orleans who is here for the weekend, Tim said, "it feels like a P-town night". He was referring to the weather and he was right. But it also felt like a P-town night psychologically and spiritually as well.

I think we all need to feel Summer. And celebrate what F. Scott Fitzgerald felt when he said, "life was beginning over again with the summer." So here are some wonderful pieces of art that I've seen recently that gave me that wonderful Summer feel. And so I say, Happy New Year and give you twelve fantastic pieces to "take you there"..wherever that special there is for you.

Enjoy! And, as always, for more information on any piece, contact me or the gallery listed. And click on images to see the pieces larger.

JM

KELLI KAUFMAN

Lafayette, LA

GULF WATERS

Oil and Wax on Canvas

30" x 48"

$ 1,900.00

available from Beau Interiors, Grayton Beach, FL
www.beauhomeinteriors.com

LAURENCE YOUNG

Provincetown, MA

A HIKE TO THE BEACH

Oil on Paper, Matted

app. 17" x 20"

$ 600.00

available from Jeffery McCullough Art & Design Consulting

CANDACE GREER

Lafayette, LA

WHITE BEAUTY
Oil/Wax/Charcoal/Oil Pastel on Panel, framed
app. 18.5" x 15.5"
$ 625.00
available from Tracery, Rosemary Beach, FL
www.traceryinteriors.com

LINDA MONCLA
Lafayette, LA
SUNSET
Watercolor on Paper
app. 11.5" x 29"
$ 325.00
available from VIEW GALLERY, Ridgeland, MS
www.viewgalleryart.com

LAURENCE YOUNG
Provincetown, MA
READY TO LAUNCH
Oil/Wax on Panel
10" x 13"
$ 950.00
available from Alden Gallery, Provincetown, MA
www.aldengallery.com