New Hope (She Gives Me) 16 x 20 Pastel 400 grit UART

Sadly there are only two National Historic Sites dedicated to the visual arts. Both are in New England, those being the Saint-Gaudens site, which is located in New Hampshire and the Weir Farm in Connecticut.

The Weir Farm is off the beaten path along the CT/NY border and as I found out many in CT do not know it exists. During my own visit to that pristine place I was strolling about thinking of the artists that at one time walked there: John Singer Sargent, Childe Hassam and John Twatchman are just a few of painter J Alden Weir’s friends. 

I found this scene during my journey around the grounds. I found myself being attracted to the morning light as it came through the same gate those talented artists walked through did many years ago.  I thought of their footsteps, how Weir came to this place and so much more. I thought of my own journey, especially since I had lost my wife a year and half previous to this visit, how my life had changed from what I expected, had planned, had dreamed over the years with my wife, and now that she was gone, how my path was now changed and continues to change forever.

I had resigned to myself that this change, this journey that I was now undertaking I would probably be one I would be taking alone. It was not, as time wore on, that did not want somebody back in my life, to share a life, create new memories for that new journey, it was just that apparently in today’s world I don’t measure up to what woman want, both literally and figuratively. After many rejections, I had pretty much determined that I might as well give up and start planning for a life alone.

Then as the saying goes, when you least expect it and you’re ready to give up hope…things again can change.

She came into my life on a Sunday evening in late July 2017. Like the soft breeze along Lynn Shore Drive and Lynn Beach, which is where we took our first walk on that summer night, talking and laughing for just about two hours. It felt natural, it felt right, it felt like we had known each other for years, had merely lost touch and now the circle that is life had brought us back together. But we had never met, at least not in this life, but still there was something special about the night, about her, about us. Things just seemed to click. It is now a number of months since that July night, and we remain as one, making new memories, sharing a new journey, and falling in love time and time again. She has ignited a spark deep within my heart where it had turned cold. She has taught me to once again to dream of what can be.  She has given me love and she has given me hope. It is because of her and the gift she has given me that this painting is titled “New Hope (She Gives Me)”