San Xavier Mission Original Oil Painting

Story One:  I grew up in Hacienda Heights, California and my husband grew up in Saint George, Utah.  We've lived in a few different places throughout our married life.  Two years ago we moved to Tucson, Arizona.  Not knowing much about Tucson we got to work visiting all of the touristy, fun, or historic places.  The San Xavier Mission, founded in 1692, was one place we soon discovered.

Story Two:  When I was a child I loved the landscape oil painting that hung above my grandmother's 1960's yellow and orange couch.  I used to secretly touch the texture of the paint on the canvas and admire the clouds in the sky.

Story One Plus Two Equals Story Three:  My grandmother passed away in July where she lived in Utah.  My mother asked me if there was anything that Grandma Kay had that I would like.  Of course the textured landscape was my first thought.  Too large to mail, my mother took it home with her to California and did a little research on the painting although she didn't have to do much since she went to high school with Robert Walter Mellgren that painted it.  She wasn't able to find "Bob Mellgren" but did find out that this oil painting is of the San Xavier Mission in Tucson.  Once I heard that, my childhood memory of the little white building in the distance and our recent visit there came together.

Not only does this painting go perfectly over our mantle, it makes me think of Tucson's beauty, my childhood, and my grandmother.