Like Going Home Again

Recently, I entered a contest called, “Like Going Home Again.” The contest was sponsored by Fine Arts America, and my painting, “New Friends,” was one of 163 paintings being judged by the general public. The painting must have pulled at a few heart strings because it placed second in the contest.

The painting depicts a little girl feeding her horse from her hat with her dog at her side. Growing up in Central New York on a small farm, which had been in my family for five generations, this painting brings back a lot of memories of my own childhood. My earliest recollections are of our old farm horse, Tony, who was my closest and best friend. My first rides were on his ample back, and when I started school there was Tony waiting for me as I got off the school bus waiting to welcome me home and walk me up to the house. My second best friend was our German Shepherd, Lucky.

Lucky was appropriately named for not only was he lucky that we found him when only a puppy abandoned in the pricker bushes, but he saved our little family and our house from a fire when I was a small child.

The painting, “New Friends,” is exactly like the contest’s name for me--“Like Going Home Again.”