Rainbow Eucalyptus by Marcia Maynard

During our military careers, hubby and I moved on average every two years. That was the pattern we had when we were each single and it didn’t change much after we met and married. My first overseas assignment was to Germany and like most Americans, I came back with crystal and decorated beer steins, beautiful carved candles, and that sort of thing. I also bought my first two oil paintings. A few years later, I made the decision that instead of the “standard souvenirs”, I would buy a piece of local art by a local artist in the places that I lived and traveled. After my husband and I were married, he agreed that was a good approach. The end result is an interesting collection of a variety of mediums, although as we spent more time in tropical climates, we tilted toward ocean themes and colors.

My sister once told me that she always enjoyed visiting me in different places because she liked to see how I would arrange things depending on what sort of house or apartment we had at the time. Now that we have settled in a place and with all that we have collected over the years, a lack of wall space has significantly reduced the amount of art that we can buy. In one sense that’s a shame since there are so many wonderful artists in South Florida. In fact, the painting in this post was done not long ago by a friend and as soon as I saw it, I knew it would go well with three other pieces that we had. However, we were also going into the remodel project and I wasn’t sure how we would arrange everything once that was done. We did have the perfect spot for it though and so last week, the Rainbow Eucalyptus came from being framed and hung on the wall. The three other paintings in that particular grouping are also by women artists, one of which was a going away present from a friend.