We have three painted stools in our kitchen. They were originally in my grandmother's kitchen. I don't remember when she painted them; they'd been there as long as I could remember. They are mine now.
The other day I was cleaning out the closet in my work room and ran across a shoe box filled with some wood blanks she had saved and her paint brushes. I hadn't really looked at them before and decided to take a break. Inside I found not only what I knew was there, but also a folded sheet of drafting paper. I carefully unfolded it and found the sketches she's done for the chair designs.
Something about that really touched me. She was a much better artist than I. The grapes look like actual grapes. The finished product has color and shading and depth. If I painted them, you'd have to paint the word "grapes" under my folksy design.
I don't even have any brushes worth saving. I buy the cheap ones because I'm really hard on my brushes: I don't clean them well enough, if something isn't painting a fine enough line, I snip some bristles off, those sorts of horrible bad habits. As I slowly looked through the bundle of her brushes though I had to laugh.
Some dried yellow paint, some blue, some snipped off ends even.
8 comments:
I have some quilts that my grandmother quilted and her grandmother pieced. When I read your post, it brought tears to my eyes. I miss Grandma so very much.
I love your new heading! It's beautiful.
What a wonderful post! What a treasure...
the mark of a good artist! Altering tools to fit one's need.
What a treasure to have! The stools are beautiful and to have the original sketch - Priceless. I really enjoy your folksy paintings too!
:-)
What a precious legacy to have of your grandmother.
I have a lot of my grandma's arts/crafts and I love looking through them from time to time. It always reminds me of the times we would craft together. I miss those days. Isn't it funny how little things can be big in our lives.
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