Inspiring Art: Cezanne

I came across this painting last March - same trip as the Kandinsky works described earlier.  Cezanne is an artist that sort of melts into the landscape of the impressionists for me - but I just loved this painting the moment I saw it:

Cezanne, Paul: Pines and Rocks (Fountainebleu?) - c.1897

And why did I love it?  It looks just like a scene from Rainy Lake, my second home just outside of International Falls.

People wonder why, if we are lucky enough to have a cabin, do we choose Rainy Lake?  It is five and one-half hours from our home in the twin cities.  It's the "ice box of the nation" filled with subzero days and feet and feet of snow.  Long winters and short summers.

Short summers!

And they are incredibly glorious.

Much of my love for Rainy Lake is the fact that our place there has been in my family for nearly 100  years.  And when you go to a place over and over you love it more and more.  The islands, like the picture above, are composed of a lot of glacial rock and pines - and beautiful blue water surrounds.

If ever there was a place that simultaneously brings me all of the themes of advent -  hope, joy, love and peace - this place is it.  And when I am there, I am present.  When I am there, I am home.

Kenamy Beach, Jackfish Bay. Rainy Lake.