Swimming Hole in January

On learning that the museum purchased this watercolor from an exhibition of work by local artists, the artist wrote to the director on December 14, 1944: “In painting this picture, the idea for it came to me, as I remembered as children, around the holidays, we would skate on the same little pond that in the heat of summer, we refreshed ourselves by swimming and wading. That others have seen the landscape thru my eyes pleases me, and I am so inspired now that I shall work harder than ever, for expression thru line and color.”