Craignolan – A Family’s Search
After many years of searching for one of his father’s original oil paintings, Mr. Craignolan was shocked when he came across on of all places, eBay, the painting he’d been looking for. The Craignolan family still holds several paintings that were produced by Leroy Peter Craignolan who was an accomplished artist throughout his adult life.
The younger Craignolan who was born in 1946 had always wanted one of his dad’s paintings from the year he was born. Although many were painted somehow none were saved. As the son said, I guess as any family back then we couldn’t afford to keep the paintings; the money was needed for rent, food and other essentials.
The painting is a landscape, as was most of the work he was producing at that time.
Leroy Peter Craignolan was a graduate of the Pratt School of Design in 1940. He was the Valedictorian that year as well. It was a difficult time in the country for artists, money was tight and art was the last thing people were spending on. He was lucky enough to land several commissions from Field & Stream magazine and The Ford Motor Company doing renderings of their new car models. Each weekend when he had time he would make the trip up to northern New York and paint with what was becoming the new breed of Hudson River Painters.
The work was beautiful as Mr. Craignolan explained and it was an exciting time for the young family. As the younger Craignolan reflected on the past, we could see all the emotion and memories within him. It was a truly moving experience for the Stu-Art Supplies family as well. As you may have guessed, after little negotiation the seller realized the importance of returning the work and made it possible for the family to acquire it again.
We at Stu-Art Supplies are grateful for the trust put in us by The Craignolan family and look forward to working with them on future framing projects.
This work is a 9” x 12” oil on canvas; framed with a 4” Larson Juhl light olive veneer frame and 1” sand colored linen liner between the painting and frame. The customer felt we should build the frame to reflect the prominence of the work.
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Stu-Art Supplies
Stu-Art Supplies has been serving the art community for more than 50 years. We are a second generation family business which strives to provide our customers quality products at the most reasonable prices. Our manufacturing facility is located in Baldwin, NY and we have been shipping our products throughout the US and Canada since 1965. Our business was developed to help both professional and amateur artists, photographers, students & hobbyists mat and frame their artwork themselves thereby saving them the cost of having to get their mats and frames from a custom frame shop or struggle with the difficulty and frustration of trying to cut their own mats. Our product line offers artists, photographers and art & craft hobbyists a way to frame, mat and display their artwork in an aesthetically pleasing manner at the lowest possible cost. Stu-Art Supplies is owned and operated by Lisa Hubley and Andrew Ray. Visit our On-line Store
