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| A Place to Call Home, 14″ x 20″, by Leslie Fehling |
I received a call one day last spring from a nice young man who wondered
if I could do some custom artwork for him. He had an old black and
white photo that he wanted me to turn into a watercolor painting to give
to his fiancée as a wedding gift.
I was excited and honored to take the job, and as I painted, I wondered about the
people who had lived on that farm in the 1800s, and what life was like for them. I
smiled when I thought about this painting of mine hanging in a new home
on the same land, and how it would become a part of this young couple’s
family.
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| Detail of farm house |
I thought it was such an interesting story of how he had found the old
photo, and I asked him to share it with you. Here it is, in his own
words:
I wanted to give something special to my fiancée for a wedding present. I
thought about making bookshelves or getting her some fancy old book,
but I finally decided on some kind of painting, but I wasn’t sure of the
subject matter.
At the same time, we were in the process of purchasing our first piece
of land. The property is part of an old farm near Graysville. While
researching the property boundaries, we came across an old picture, on
Ancestry.com, of what the property used to look like. It was a great
old photo, taken nearly 150 years ago, of an old farm house, four barns,
and miles of fencing, none of which are still there today. Where there
are fields in the picture, there now stand many trees, and only one
worn out house remains, and it isn’t even pictured.
this photo, I thought nothing about it, but when brainstorming for a
painting idea, this popped into my head. It was our first property. It
was going to be the place where we were going to build our home.
The picture on the web site wasn’t the best. It was faded, so you could
not make out many of the objects. So, I looked up who
posted the picture, found her name in the White Pages online, and gave
her a call. She turned out to be a descendant of Thomas Gray, the
person who had owned our land and for whom the town of Graysville is
named. She was dedicated to tracing her family tree. Just months
before, she had visited Greene County in search of this property, but
had been unable to find it. She was happy enough just to find the town
that her family had started. After a conversation that lasted a good
twenty minutes, she took my address and sent out a better copy of the
picture, along with a letter.
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| Detail of foliage and fence |
I was thrilled to get the picture in the mail, because there was so much
more that I could see in it. Now I could make out animals, gardens and
a couple of people that before were just smudges.
Now I needed to find a person to paint it. The only place I know that does
anything with painting is Artisans, the art gallery on High Street near
the court house. I went up there, talked to the person in charge, and
after a couple minutes looking at the work of several different artists,
I made my decision. Leslie’s style appealed to me, and I thought she
would do a great job with the subject matter.
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| Detail of barn, garden, and orchard |
A couple of months later, after our rehearsal dinner, my wife and I met
in our apartment to say one last good bye before the big day, and to
exchange our gifts. I was a little nervous, but she opened it, she
liked it, and gave me a big smile and a hug. I was happy, and couldn’t
have asked for anything more. We now have something to hang on our wall
and a story to tell for a long, long time.
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| Detail of tree and fence |
Now, isn’t that a nice story? And I think she’s one lucky girl to have found such a sweet, thoughtful man.
If you have an idea for some custom artwork, just drop me an email using the “Contact” button at the top of the page. I’d love to talk with you about some of the possibilities.
3 Comments
Love your painting! What a great gift.
The painting is absolutely wonderful. You did a remarkable job of bringing life to a black and white photo. What a lovely story to go with it. I hope that young woman understands she has a real keeper there!
Amen to that, Suz – he's such a sweetie!