Happy Autumn--enjoy this painting!

The fall colors are really getting pretty in my neck of the woods and I thought I would share this painting with all of you--the back story is that an old friend of mine, Bonnie White, is a folk artist who has recently done very well and a lot of her paintings are now being made into puzzles and notecards by a big company. She even painted an ornament for the White House tree and has won numerous awards. When she was first starting out though, she would paint your house in the folk art style for a very reasonable price.

My husband commissioned her to paint our house, built in 1790, and she put our family members and even the dog into the painting in period costumes. My older daughter (now a vet) was running a sheep farm at the time, so she has the sheep. My son is riding the bike and DH is splitting wood, something he actually likes to do! The other daughter was a photography major in college, so is pictured with an old-fashioned camera. I make teddy bears, so I have one in my hands. The dog is our now deceased Wheaten terrier, Louie. This image of painting was sold to a puzzle company with our permission, so i got the scan of it to share with everyone and I also made my own cards with the image.

If you look closely at the background, you will see my hubby's observatory--he has a teloscope and he made a small building for it with a roll-off roof--putting it in the painting was his idea, of course!

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Permalink Reply by Amber (with Maggie) on October 19, 2011 at 7:43pm

I love it! The colors are beautiful!

Currier and Ives meets normal rockwell :)

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Permalink Reply by sandy b on October 20, 2011 at 4:48am

Ginny, thank you for sharing. This is so lovely.

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Permalink Reply by Carol and Banjo on October 20, 2011 at 5:05am

Oh my! This is so special Ginny. What a great honor to be part of her success! I love the vibrant colors.

I love folk art, years ago painted and sold my paintings through a small country/general store called Brown and Hopkins in RI. It is still the oldest continuously running general store in the US. I haven't painted for years and keep saying....someday....... maybe this will be my inspiration. Oh, and I think it's so cool that your DH has his own oberservatory!!!!

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Permalink Reply by Sally, Ditzy Mitzi & Sgt. Pepper on October 20, 2011 at 5:38am

How interesting, Carol. Years ago, in the 70's, we were living in R.I. and I started taking painting lessons with some of my neighbors. Have been painting as a hobby ever since!

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Permalink Reply by Ronna, Murphy & Wilson on October 20, 2011 at 5:44am

This is fantastic! And what a talented and interesting family you have!

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Permalink Reply by Carol and Banjo on October 20, 2011 at 6:05am

That's great that you've continued to paint Sally! What medium do you use?

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Permalink Reply by Sally, Ditzy Mitzi & Sgt. Pepper on October 20, 2011 at 10:12am

I like oils, they are the most forgiving medium, though to be honest, I haven't painted recently, too afraid my grandkids will get into the paint and turps, but I am in the mood to start again, soon, and they are old enough to know to "keep away".

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Permalink Reply by Sue, Lola, Pongo & Hubby on October 20, 2011 at 6:44am

Wow, this is absolutely beautiful!!!!!! Is this actually what your house looks like now?? If it does, I'm moving in tomorrow!

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Permalink Reply by Ginny Nightingale on October 20, 2011 at 12:09pm

We just repainted--I will have to post a new picture--we were saying what a shame it is that the house is not going to match the painting anymore! (But the dog doesn't either!) It was built in 1790 (we put the garage up 20 years ago) and needs to be repaired ALL the time--but we love it. Glad you do too! The back hill is now covered in trees but was once an open field and the road looked very much like it does here back in 1900. We have an old photo of the house from 1901 and it is amazing how undeveloped everything was. There was no electric here until the 1940s, they had an outhouse until the 1960s and we had a party line for a phone when I moved in in the 1970's! (For those of you who remember what that was.) And we are just two hours north of NYC! Go figure!