A Momentous Occasion

I’ve been hanged! Or hung. Or whatever the proper terminology is.

My artwork — such as it is — is now on public display at the Harrisonville branch of the Cass County Library. This is where our regional fine arts association meets each month. As a member, I’m allowed to hang two of my works in the exhibition hall.

Last weekend, accompanied by a devoted grandson who thinks his grandmother is the world’s best artist, we carried one of my framed oil paintings into the hall and my husband carefully attached it to the display railing.

It’s impossible to get a good picture, but you’ve seen the painting before.  It was one I struggled with, wiping away all I’d painted several times.  In the end, I liked it, if only because it was a tribute to persistence.

I also like the “artist card” I designed, using one of my watercolors for the background.

When we walked away, it was such a strange feeling to be leaving my painting there. I felt so empty-handed! Now, each time we drive past the library, I wave to my painting. I hope it’s happy there.

I hope, too, to do more painting in the coming weeks. I recently gave several paintings to family members as Christmas gifts. In return, they gave me lots of new canvases. And a few requests, too. Would I please paint another bridge scene, asked a granddaughter. One daughter was quick to point out that she loves all my landscapes and would love to have another for her wall. Another wants anything “reminiscent of the French countryside.”

It’s still an odd feeling to think that somehow I became the artist of the family. And what an odd feeling to now have one of my original oil paintings hanging on the wall of the library. I never thought such a thing would ever happen.

Thanks for sharing this momentous occasion with me. I’m inspired now by new possibilities, and I’m looking forward to another year of learning, growing, and discovering new joys in art.