The attached painting was done from a photograph with no intention of altering the image whatsoever. It was taken eighteen years ago and has always tugged at my heart…titled ‘From A Distance’. My daughter had made a decision to become a single parent, leaving a marriage of eight years setting out on her own with her three year old daughter.
She worked diligently to make a new home and life for her daughter and I watched her struggle from a distance always keeping an eye for when she seemed to need support. In the first summer of her struggle I decided to take the two of them on a camping holiday to a favorite haunt; Lake Huron.
Early one morning the two of them were ahead of me on the way to the beach and I couldn’t resist this photograph; the long stretch of sand, such a long way to the water’s edge…hand in hand on a long journey ahead. My granddaughter's first introduction to swimming in a 'big lake'. They kept hand in hand on a long road in the years that followed.
My granddaughter has just graduated from university with a degree in medicine; my daughter went on to complete a science degree at university and married again to an absolutely wonderful partner.
The journey was long and she completed it with determination, hope and faith and belief in her decision and the future; always with the well being of the little girl in hand at the forefront of her journey; just as she did this day. Of course, it wasn’t my daughter who took the little one in the water, it was grandmother after all…..on hand from a distance. I’ve painted this after many years on the occasion of my granddaughter’s graduation and dedicate it to the long road she will now travel into the future with the determination, faith and belief she learned hand in hand from her mother and with the support of others ‘from a distance’
Hi again Ruby!... This is a wonderfully personal and poignant portrait of love and courage!
ReplyDeleteBeing an "artist" is not so much how well one technically moves paint around... as it how one moves the viewer's heart and stimulates sensitivity.
It matters not whether that is captured by the lens of one's own eye... or a camera. Both can... and do... when used sensitively, accomplish the very same thing!
You do justice to both lens in your wonderfully composed photographs and your paintings!
Continued good Painting and Picture-taking Ruby!
Warmest regards,
Bruce
PS Your daughter is not a single parent... alone ... as I see and feel it! Lucky "Her"!
Thank you so much for visiting and your comments. I am so honored that you take the time to look at what I am doing.
ReplyDeleteYour comments are always so helpful and when I'm truly questioning what I am doing, give me the 'boost' I need to keep searching my artistic trail
Thank you Bruce