A New Perspective

Jared's Grandma Oldroyd was a woman of many talents. One of these talents was oil painting. We are lucky to have a few of her works of art hanging in our home. Grandma's paintings are generally of colorful flower arrangements and landscapes which add beauty and life to their surroundings. There is one painting of hers that we have had hanging over our fireplace for the last two years. When we first put it there I thought it looked pretty good since it's colors are neutral and it was the perfect size. Since then, however, I noticed I was enjoying it less and less. I even started calling it the "Lone and Dreary World" picture. It seemed bleak and lifeless, gray, and somewhat depressing.

At the same time, our lighting situation in the living room was becoming desperate. Elizabeth had broken lamp after lamp after lamp and it was too dark to read or study or play the piano in there. One day I was driving Will home from school and we noticed that someone was giving away a bunch of track lighting. I stopped and had Will load it in the car. Over the next few weeks, Jared installed the lights and WOW! All of a sudden we could see. He aimed a spotlight on the painting of Grandma's and for the first time I noticed it's warm tones and soft shades. It went from looking like the middle of winter without snow to looking like the sun was just coming out and the world was ready to awaken for spring. I'm not sure what Grandma was thinking when she painted it, but I am sure thankful for the new perpective it gave me. What a difference a little light makes!

I'm not sure if you can tell a difference on here, but on the wall it was dramatic!