Sometimes in my travels I have come to a place where I say, “What a beautiful place! I love this place!” And what have I done to so appreciate it? I have seen it. What I have felt or otherwise sensed there I can experience most anywhere. Just so do I sometimes see a painting of a place and thrill to its beauty even more than I thrill to the actual place; for to enhance the single effect the artist has intuitively deemed most charming for that place, whether directly or relatively, by altering some item near it, the place the artist has created has been transformed in every detail.
I have learned that if a painting that so thrills me is for sale and I don”t buy it, it may haunt me until I decide I must have it; and when I return to make the purchase I will likely find it gone. Ever after, the memory of that painting may haunt me as a bit of wonderland that I have lost, never to find again.
Many years ago a painting in the window of a thrift shop held me enraptured for a moment. Returning next day, I found it gone. I don”t remember the subject painted, only the frustrated desire. I could have had it for a dollar, and I still grieve a little for the loss of it. It was a small, painting, maybe ten by twelve inches; and it was a predominantly golden brown color. There were some trees in it, and subdued sunlight. It taught me life is not so long that we can pass these golden moments by.
Dean Sparks, Lucerne
