Memory Day: Bedroom Painting

This is the E. Near painting that hung over my parents' bed since the late 1970s. With direct lighting, it actually looks moderately vibrant, but on the wall, it's a murk of faded, gloomy colors.

My parents gave me this painting (and other similar ones) as "starter art" when I first moved into my house in Sterling back in 2004. Over the years, they've gradually been replaced with art I actually like. This one was replaced with Sitting Tree last June and has been boxed up in the closet ever since. No one in the family seemed to want it for nostalgia's sake but Evil Mike snapped it up when I posted about it on Facebook so he is the proud new owner.

Here's a picture of the family under the painting in the early 80s:

And here's a sketch I did of the painting around 1991 when I was taking art classes at the Torpedo Factory and pursuing hopeless dreams of becoming an artist: