ART AND AUCTIONS!

Do you ever wonder why things happen the way they do?  I had a couple of very interesting things happen to me last week - and they both had to do with art.

I know very little about art, but I do know a remember pieces I have seen in people's homes over the years.

Last weekend there was an auction sale here in town.  It was actually the second sale of the belongings of someone local.  We didn't go to the first auction, and we weren't really intending on going to the second one, but I saw that you could attend a viewing of the articles still available for the second auction the evening before - so we decided to go to that.

It was held in the skating rink, and when we got there everything was laid out on tables and on the floor and you could just wander and look around without anyone bugging you.  There weren't many people there so we took our time.

What was left was mainly household items, kitchen stuff, small tables, Christmas decorations, art, lots and lots of yarn ( which I ignored - pat on the back for Dale!) and some furniture and a few garden items.  I was looking at something on one of the tables, and my foot hit something.  I looked down at the floor to see what I kept running into and  - WHAM..... a powerful punch of nostalgia hit me like a brick house falling down!

There on the floor was a piece of artwork that I grew up with.  It was the identical Vintage Still Art print of a water jug, some fruit and a knife that had hung on my Mother's kitchen wall for as long as I could remember.  I knew it wasn't her piece as my brother now has that picture hanging on his kitchen wall.

Of course I wanted it.

Here's the thing - I know as much about auctions, as I know about art!  I thought that I could return to the auction the next day, bid on the picture and get it - no problem - who would want it anyway?  Someone had painted the frame a dark brown and slopped paint on the glass, so the whole thing kinda looked sad - but I knew I could get it looking good again.

I didn't want to spend the whole day at the auction so I decided to wait a few hours and attend the second half of the auction.  My idea was that no one would probably want the picture anyway, so chances are it would still be there, and I could offer on it.

When we got to the auction, it was to find that 90% of the items were already gone.  What I didn't know, but soon discovered was that items had not been sold individually - but were bundled together with other items - I guess to make a better profit, and to ensure everything would be gone at the end of the day.

The painting was gone....

I was so disappointed, but then I really couldn't blame anyone but myself and my ignorance of art and auctions - could I?

I have spent hours looking through images of such paintings on the Internet, and I haven't come close to finding anything like these two paintings.  The closest I have come is a picture with fruit painted in a similar way - but the jug and knife are missing and the fruit is a bit different.

Chances are the painting is still around here somewhere.  There weren't that many people at the auction.  So maybe it will show up somewhere at a garage sale eventually.  I can hope for that outcome.  But in the meantime I thought I could get a picture of my Mom's painting and post it on the local buy and sell to see if anyone had the other picture and wanted to part with it.  I asked my brother if he could take a picture on the painting and send it to me - but true to form, he's not responding.



In the meantime, a week or so ago I  had posted about the picture I had purchased at the Thrift store a week or so ago.

Then a few days ago I got a email from my sister-in-law in Chicago, saying she had the identical picture as that one.  She had bought it and a winter scene on the East Coast a few years back.

Weird that there should be two identical pictures in my life in a little over a week.

My sister-in laws pictures - hers also had green frames, but she painted them a different colour.  Mine is identical to the one on the left.  Wouldn't it be neat if I could find the winter scene as well!

 

Well that is enough weirdness for me for awhile.  I am determined to hunt down that other picture that I saw at the auction.  If nothing else it will help me pass the time on rainy cool days like this one!