The continued story of this painting
This painting is the very first one that I created as a teaching piece. I created it in 2017 for my very first public solo gallery show of my rainy moments paintings. I created it alongside a title card that explained the phases of my painting process, so that people could see that creating my oil paintings was so much more involved than “leaving them out in the rain” or “melting wax crayons” or “just letting them drip.” The teach painting helped folks to see the step by step process of how not only do I create “rainy days” from my oil paintings, but about the transformation of them from highly textured pointilism paintings to smooth drizzles, and how the metaphor of life’s storms transformations eventually expressed that as well.
Over the years, I’ve had many people ask if the piece was for sale, but no one has commissioned another one like it, or followed through with buying it after presented with the opportunity. I continued to use this painting over the last ten or so years to bring delight and wonder to many who have visited my art studio or booth at art shows by the sheer fact that they are allowed to touch this specific oil painting, and thus forming a core memory.
In spring of 2026, this painting flew off the roof of my car as I was getting on the highway after loading my car with paintings for a show (read article here). I had placed it on top of my car with intent to place it inside the vehicle, but got distracted and forgot. I arrived to the show, realizing the painting was not there, and was likely gone forever. By a sheer stroke of luck, I returned to the scene where I thought the painting might’ve fallen off, and expected to find it impaled, punctured, dirted, or overall in bad condition in case it got run over by other vehicles. In a small miraculous moment, I found the painting laying perfectly still, undamaged, and waiting to be returned to the studio.
A few weeks later a person walked into my studio, and per my usual invitation, I asked if she’d like to touch the painting. “I can really touch it?!’ she asked with equal parts awe and curiosity. “Yes, absolutely,” I answered. “It was actually created to be touched!” She then stated just how amazing it was that she could touch it — since she has low vision impairment, the ability to touch this painting was a gamechanger for her. She loved the painting so much that she purchased it on the spot, but wanted it to remain in the studio for the rest of the month so that others could still have a chance to experience it though the tactile experience.
A month later she picked up the painting, and was very excited to say that she had the perfect spot on the way to her room where she could touch it every day. I love how that is phrased — where she can touch it every day! With everything going on around us, it’s important to remember that artwork can still touch others’ lives, and for some, touching the artwork is for most touching thing.