Sweetheart Cottage III

For me, one of the great pleasures of travel comes before the actual trip. It’s the anticipation – reading Baadekers, watching travelogs, daydreaming about the places I’ll visit, even sketching some of my most vivid imaginations.

That’s just what I’ve done in Sweetheart Cottage IIII, The View from Havencrest Cottage, my third and final painting in my Sweetheart Cottage Series. This painting anticipates a long-planned get-away to the Austrian Alps that Nanette and I have been planning for months. I’ve wandered the verdant, flowering Alpine valleys in my mind, even climbed the soaring, snow-capped peaks – very likely the only way I’ll do that. This delightful vista and romantic landscape expresses the best that I’ve “seen” on my imaginary ramblings.

Havencrest Cottage is poised on a hillside midway between the towering, sun-dappled mountains and the meadow festive with blue Lupine. Note the hearts in the Gothic windows. The rock on which Havencrest Cottage stands allows the inhabitants to view the vast sweep of God’s grandeur; while the rainbow symbolizes promises kept – my profound hope that the real trip that Nanette and I take will live up to my lovely expectations.