By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
JUNE 1, 2021 | Some homeowners have a minimal approach to bare walls.
I’m the opposite. Walls are meant for hanging objects, primarily pictorial scenes, although other items can decorate a house. Some like fabric hangings, plates, quilts, awards, photographs, or even entire collections.
Back in 1958, just entering military quarters in Bad Nauheim, Germany, one day my young bride and I drove to Frankfurt, and while looking around the city, went into an art gallery. We found a painting we liked, and immediately bought it.
It struck us as a beautiful scene, one of foxhunters on horses, trotting on a trail through tall trees. The green and brown and red jackets of the hunters are vivid. We never thought of it before, but when looking at it lately, for some reason, this painting doesn’t show the dogs of the hunt. It’s our first buy, and we still enjoy it.
Though signed, we do not know anything about the person who painted it. It’s no great treasure, we suppose, but it has hung on a wall of every home since. It’s comforting.
Over the years, we collected other art work that we’ve liked, though none is greatly valuable. Among the best are at least two pieces of the work of the late George Keener, a local man-of-all-trades, who painted rural scenes of Georgia. They are scenes of contentment with nature.
Then there is another memorable painting that we bought, this one at auction, which has been with us at every home.
In the spring of 1962, we were living in Iowa when I was in graduate school, and we heard of a Grant Wood Festival in Anamosa, Iowa, the home of the painter of “American Gothic.” With our one-year old along, we attended the event. Besides focusing on Wood, other artists were showing their wares. The group promoting the event even had items you could bid on at a silent auction. Even though a poor student then, I put in a bid on one rural bridge painting of a few dollars….perhaps it was six dollars.
We left the festival before the winners of the auction were announced. About a week later, we got notice that we were the high bidder on the painting. We were instructed to send a payment, and they would ship us the painting. We were excited that we would get another item for our walls.
Each day we would check the mail, looking for the painting. We waited and waited. Finally, I wrote about the Festival. And eventually, the package arrived, and anxiously we unwrapped it to view our prize.
What we saw made us wonder. While it was a painting, it didn’t look as we remembered it. In fact, it was about the same scene, but appeared that it was a quickly-made copy of what we remembered bidding on. Not only that, but it didn’t seem to be of the same quality we remembered the painting we bid on. It wasn’t something that we felt proud of.
There seemed little we could do. It appeared we had a lousy copy of the painting we remembered. And it was of such low quality, we didn’t feel like hanging it on our walls for all to see.
We still have it. It’s hanging….in an upstairs closet, hidden away, you might say.
It’s not a prized possession.
Two memorable paintings on our walls: one we love, the other we hide.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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