This is a story about how a beautiful oil painting came about…

Little did I know when I took
a renaissance like photo of a salmon dinner ingredients for a March post that it would be turned into a lovely oil painting by Antoinette Barnum (top photo from yearbook.)  Toni, as we call her, and I graduated from a Massachusettes high school together in 1970…We were in the same homeroom and art classes together.  Toni was friendly, popular, talented and she was a cheerleader!! We hung out in different circles of friends but those circles warmly intertwined often…now on social media we are both friends and follow many of the same people from our class… Toni living in California now and me on the east coast, enjoy seeing each other at class reunions, once every 5 years.

Yes, that is a yearbook photo of me, and yes that is Victor’s signature under my photo…we started dating when I was a freshman and he was a junior..the rest is history❤️

This picture is from our last class reunion 45 years in 2015…left to right, Toni, our friend Evie from another circle of friends and me…                                                                                                                            

    This is the photo that I took for my blog post in March (to see post, press here)…I also posted this picture on Instagram, and Toni saw it and replied that she liked the composition and could she try it??  Of course I said yes, but I didn’t know exactly what she was going to try!!

So last week when I was visiting Gina, Tom and the kids, Toni posted this sketch on Instagram…I was astonished at how close it looked like the original photo…I was so excited that I was showing everyone I came in contact with at Gina’s and also I shared it on Instagram…but I thought that was it!!  Then the next day she posted this!!!  At first, I thought it was my photo??…when I looked closer I saw her name and saw that the picture looked softer than the photo and quickly knew she had painted it!!! It is an oil on canvas, 24″X24″!!  I am honored that Toni wanted to paint a picture that I took…My question to her is, what is she going to do with this painting?

From my studio to Toni’s

Just as our circle of friends came together many years ago to form friendships…I feel like Toni’s and my spirits came together across the country to form a beautiful painting and story to share…

💞