The Art Gallery

 Years and years ago, I had the opportunity to become totally awed by an entire "museum" of original art pieces.  Mom and my grandmother took me with them when they went to visit some friends and I was allowed to wander through several rooms of the most beautiful paintings I had ever seen.  Of course, I was a mere child that had never been exposed to much art so any painting was an incredible piece to me.  I was enamored by the fact that some one had actually been able to put flowers, birds, animals, trees and buildings on a flat piece of canvas and make it really look like something.  There were hundreds of paintings at my disposal so I meandered through the rooms of their house doing nothing less than gasping at the beauty.  Then!  Then, the ladies took me downstairs to a sort of closed in area underneath their house.  This was once a garage but had been turned into a makeshift art studio/gallery.  Many, many more pieces of art were hanging there.  Every wall was covered with paintings. In fact, there were even paintings on the ceiling!  Some were framed but many were just the stretched canvases.  Again, I was allowed to wander aimlessly ogling the artwork.  The ladies showed me their easels, paints, brushes and canvases and even some art pieces "in the works".  They each took the time to make sure a little girl found a love of art.  Two little old ladies, who had never had an art class in their whole lives, taught me more about what it means to express what is trapped inside than any instructor that I ever had.  This was and, to this day, my only experience of being in an art "museum" where I truly became mesmerized by the works.  These two "un"acclaimed artists were so prolific in their renderings that they could have put many famous artists to shame.  To my knowledge, neither lady ever sold a single painting but they donated many to charity or church fundraisers.  If you liked it, they gave it to you.  

  Today, there are several paintings hanging in my house that are by these very talented ladies.  I wish I had more.  Each time, I pass by one of their pictures, a flood of memories comes back and, once again, I am awed by their talent.  The ladies are both gone now and it saddens me that most of their paintings were destroyed, many by a hurricane that took their house but the rest were viewed as rubbish and tossed the wayside.  Tonight, I stood looking at two of the paintings that I have acquired through a bit of finagling.  One of the paintings is of a vase of pansies and it was given to my aunt years ago.  The piece went with her to West Virginia where it was hung for some fifty years in her home. The piece is a water-color on paper and, over the years, had been exposed to moisture and has a few spots on it.  When my cousin asked if I wanted it before he threw it in the trash, I jumped at the chance!  I had an original!  Then, when I was visiting a distant relative, she asked if there was any of the paintings in her house that I wished to have left to me.  Yes!  I wanted a painting of a river that her mother had done and one of a bayou by "Ms. Helen"!  Several years ago, sadly, this relative passed away but she had kept her word and left me the two paintings with the sweetest note of how she knew the paintings were going to be given a good home and not be discarded because they were not by famous artists.

  The ladies, Helen Vignes and Ida Lapp, were friends of my grandmother.  Then, after grandmother passed, the friendship continued with my mother.   Later, I was blessed to call them friends and (even though she was not much more than a toddler) Darling Daughter was given the opportunity to share time with them.  Four generations of our family had the good fortune to know these ladies.  The paintings posted here, hang in my living room.  Both are by Helen Vignes.  The watercolor of lovely pansies and the bayou scene both mean so much to me.  I have several of the paintings by Ida Lapp and will share those later.  The paintings and the ladies will always be cherished!