Painting Brings Back Childhood Memories

Painted by Amy Hoffmann Ritter

 

Amy’s painting pulls me in and makes me feel as though I am standing right inside her picture. It took me a while to understand the emotions her picture stirs in me, but now I understand.

Her painting brings back precious childhood memories.

Jar of pink peonies on my Mother's grave

The off-white flowers remind me of a long row of dark red, pink, and white blossomed peony plants that edged our yard and bloomed in time for family grave decorations on Memorial Day at the Salem Methodist Church my family attended. My mother (her name was Lillian) and her sister, my Aunt Ruth, would gather these flowers and arrange the different colors in glass jars to sit on our family graves. After the Memorial service, people would congregate inside the church and outside in the graveyard to catch up with family they hadn’t seen since the past Memorial Day. People often traveled more than a hundred miles to attend the services. Memorial Day was always been a big event for my family and we would have a meal at our family home where people would stop by to eat after the service. A jar or two of peonies would grace the dinner table and fill the air with their strong fragrance.

The blue sky in Amy’s painting reminds me of times when I would lie on my back, as a kid, in the fields on our farm and look up at the skies during the long summer days. I could spend hours looking at the blue sky and the white fluffy clouds that drifted through the sky. Sometimes, I would chew on a dry piece of straw. It was quiet and I could hear birds chirping, cows mooing, and an airplane flying overhead. It created a time for me to daydream.

Amy, thank you for creating this painting. It helped bring back childhood memories that I have not thought about for a long time.

Your paintings are gifts of inspiration from your heart. Keep painting. Keep inspiring!