A Christmas Tale

Here's a nice little story which I thought I'd pop on the forum given the time of year. I was recently approached by a local church asking if if they could use a painting of mine for the front cover of the Christmas edition of their magazine. They had seen it on the internet and thought it appropriate as it's a snow scene and features the most well known landmark in the town - the Old Grammar School. The picture has long since been sold but as I retain copyright I had pleasure in agreeing and the Magazine was published a couple of weeks ago. About a week ago I received an email from a young lady who is a befriender. One of the people she regularly visits is a lady of 87 who was an active charity worker in the town in her younger years. She is now all alone with no family and the befriender is one of the few people she ever has contact with in her old age. When the befriender called in to see her a week ago she was quite excited; she showed the befriender a copy of my painting which she had cut out from the front page of the magazine explaining that she looked at it every day as it reminded her of her childhood when she used to play in the same location in the snow. The befriender told me the story as she thought it was such a lovely little tale and she thought I would like to hear it. She also asked me if I had a print of the painting she could give to the lady as a christmas present. I explained that the image I have is okay for reproducing in A5 size as used in the magazine but was not of sufficient quality to take larger prints from. However, as I was really touched by this I offered to paint a second version of the painting and pop it in a frame as a gift for the lady. I only hope she's not too proud and accepts it in the manner intended. I used the original version of this painting as a Christmas card here on POL a couple of years back and for those who are interested I have just popped the latest version on the gallery at: http://www.painters-online.co.uk/gallery/art-view,picture_156351.htm

You're kind Syd but I was looking for something to paint as I had run out of ideas and the frame had an imperfection which was only small but meant I couldn't put it in exhibition or a gallery. For me the point of the story was that something painted some while back was giving such pleasure to a lonely lady in her later years.