Pretty As A Picture

Thank you everyone for your encouraging words and heartfelt congratulations to our son, Bugs, for his recent graduation!  Now begins the whirlwind of parties, he has 1 tonight and 4 tomorrow!  I'm glad I'm not 18 anymore, I don't think I could handle the social schedule!

My in-laws left this morning to start the long drive back to Indiana.  We had a wonderful visit with them and they brought several photo albums to share with us while they were here.  Seeing pictures of Mr. Tide's side of the family is always fun and interesting.  My mother-in-law has been researching their family's genealogy for years now, so she is quite knowledgeable and can tell you a little bit about each of the photographs and how they relate to our immediate family. 

While looking at old family photographs, you have to wonder what happened to some of the furnishings, jewelry, and artwork that are pictured in each one.  Some of the items get passed down from generation to generation, but clearly a lot of the items pictured have disappeared from the families who once cherished them.

Recently, while cleaning out my parent's attic, we came across two paintings that had once belonged to my maternal grandparents.

Both paintings hung in their bedroom for as long as I can remember.

And although they are unsigned, they appear to be by the same artist.

Each one has a distinctive frame but they both relate to one another, just as each print compliments the other.

The wood frames almost appear to be hand carved and have a simple folk art quality to them!

These pictures are full of all sorts of interesting birds!

The level of detail and sense of motion is quite beautiful.

And the wide variety of colors used by the artist allows them to go with almost every color scheme!

My favorite is this beautiful peacock with it's subtle shades of green!

And this little fellow, although a little worse for wear, is still vibrant and jumps right off of the canvas at you.

There are so many interesting things to look at in these pictures, like the little dragonfly above who is touching down on what I assume is a lotus blossom.

Or this delicate little butterfly in muted shades of tan, red, gray, and blue!

And not to be outdone by the wildlife, the flowers also make a statement!  These lilies are just some of the pretty flowers found in both pictures.

When we first found these pictures, we were all drawn to this...a chewed hole in the upper right hand corner of one of the paintings.  It is the hallmark of those dreaded little creatures known as silverfish!  

And because these pictures had some damage, and were clearly showing their age (whatever that may be) all of us put them in a stack of giveaway/donate items.  But something about them kept drawing me back, and I couldn't get them out of my mind.  So a week or so ago I went back over to the house and retrieved them from their castaway fate.

I will clean them up, maybe have non-glare glass cut to fit the frames, and hang them in my own bedroom.  I'm not sure we have any photos of these hanging in my grandparent's home, but perhaps in the future there will be some photos of them hanging in my home.  And when generations long after I'm gone look at those photos, I wonder if they too will wonder what ever happened to these paintings, or if they will smile and think about them hanging on their own walls!

I hope you all have family treasures which surround you and bring you comfort and joy!  And I hope you have a wonderful weekend!