This week the UPS truck pulled up to our house, and we were pleasantly surprised by a promise come true! We weren’t sure if our “winning number” had been for real, but it turned out to be. It is beautiful, and is now hanging in our living room. What a lovely gift!
About a month ago, while on our cruise to Alaska, we chose to attend a seminar showcasing the art of Thomas Kinkade. We have always enjoyed his paintings, and we were interested in knowing more about him, his life, and his artistic beginnings and abilities.
As we entered the room already filled with people, five of his paintings were set up on easels. We were instructed to look these over carefully to find the letter N hiding somewhere in the illustrations. Kinkade considered these hidden letters “love notes” to his wife, Nannette. Every time we found one, we were given a ticket with a series of numbers on them. After about a half hour of searching, laughing and chatting with other people, we took our collection of tickets and sat down to enjoy the presentation.
Dan and I had sixteen tickets between us. We put them in numerical order and tucked them away for later. The advertising for this meeting said there would be prizes, including one Kinkade painting given away. We thought that would be fun to win, but really we just were mainly interested in his life and work. As we sat back and listened with several others about this American artist, we learned new facts about him and his family.
He grew up in the small town of Placerville, California, in a Christian home. Thomas used his artistic gift to communicate and spread life-affirming values to those who saw his art. In his works that send a message of hope, happiness, and a reaffirmation of faith, he really wanted these paintings to be accessible to anyone and everyone. Many of his works dwell on the beauty of nature and the spirit of adventure.
It was explained to us that as a young boy, Thomas would go home to an empty and dark house. As he matured into adulthood, Kinkade began to explore the nature of light in pictorial space. He was determined that his four daughters would find their own messages of love in his paintings, not only with their names and images often appearing in the pictures, but also from the light that spills out of the buildings and lampstands and other objects painted. Kinkade came to be known as “The Painter of Light”.
Thomas Kinkade called himself a “warrior for light”. He aimed to drive away the darkness that many people feel, bringing warmth and happiness into their homes. His paintings include cabin and nature scenes, beautiful gardens, classic cottages, sports, inspirational content, lighthouses, and powerful seascapes.
Mr. Kinkade painted for historic events like Disneyland’s 50th Anniversary, Walt Disney World Resort’s 35th Anniversary, Elvis Presley’s purchase of Graceland and its 25th Anniversary of its opening to the public. He also commemorated the 50th Anniversary of Daytona 500 and Yankee Stadium’s farewell 85th season.
Before his untimely death at the age of 54 in 2012, he raised millions of dollars for charity. This money assisted non-profit organizations focusing on children, humanitarian issues, and the arts. The Salvation Army and the Make-A-Wish Foundation were two of his more well known interests.
As the seminar came to a close, they began to call out some of the numbers on the tickets. A few prizes were given away, most of them discounts on paintings hanging in the gallery on deck 4 of the ship. Finally it came to the time for the grand prize which was one of Kinkade’s paintings, fully framed and ready to be hung. As they called out the final number, I couldn’t believe it was one of the tickets we had spread out in front of us! I yelled out, “ We have it!” The gentleman in charge came over, took the ticket in his hands, and said, “ No this is not it.” I looked up at him in disbelief, and he laughed and said, “ I’m kidding. You won!!”
We waited for him to show us what we had won, and after a little more conversation we were informed that we needed to come down to the ship’s art gallery to claim our prize. We were very excited when they told us we could pick any painting we wanted from the four long walls of several of Kinkade’s art work. That was a really hard decision as there were so many beautiful pictures to choose from. We narrowed it down to two, and made the decision to go with Dan’s favorite entitled, “ Mountains Declare His Glory”. It reminded us a lot of our travels through Oregon and Washington with the mountains and rivers. The picture is a mountain scene near a river, with a campfire and a gorgeous sunset portraying Kinkade’s famous “light”.
They told us that our “prize” would arrive at our home in about 6-8 weeks. We were a little doubtful, and kidded that it would probably come rolled up in a cardboard tube! Time would tell, but this week when it arrived in a large carton stamped “ Fragile – Glass”, our faith and excitement was restored. It is really wonderful when something you look forward to ends up being all that you hoped it would.
lbeerman68@gmail.com
