The Power of a Painting

The day I delivered this painting to the gallerist, seemed to be like any other delivery day. I started unloading paintings and she looked through them to confirm that she wanted each of them, before carrying them inside. Often, a painting will look different in person than in a photo.

I turned around and saw the gallerist looking at one painting in particular, with tears in her eyes. She said, I may have to buy this one for myself. I thought, ok, we'll see. I often hear that and it is a nice compliment.  She stood around outside my van and continued to look at it and said, Anne, I really mean it... This one makes me feel like it is a painting of my husband and me. I knew he had died not long ago. I could barely imagine how hard it must be to suffer such a loss.

We stood together looking at the painting. I could see what she might have been drawn to in the artwork. The two chairs communicating but not touching, the dark square behind the one chair, the chairs being somewhat different from each other, the painting seemed a perfect description of her life now. There were other parts of the piece she liked as well as its meaning for her. The colors, the mark making, the simplicity of the unfinished and finished places all seemed to appeal to her. It was astonishing to me that a painting could speak so powerfully to a person. This is when I started to understand the power of a painting.

These are not the things I could have ever planned. This is just a precious gift to the owner of the painting. It is also a gift to the artist if they ever even hear about such an encounter between a person and their new painting.