Vintage Art Appreciation: Christmas Eve by Carlton Alfred Smith

You can live a charmed life by causing others to live a charmed life.
That is, be the source of ‘charm’
— of charming moments and experiences — in the life of another.
Be everyone else’s Lucky Charm!
Make all who you touch today feel ‘lucky’ that you crossed their path.
Do this for a week and watch things change.
Do it for a month and you’ll be a different person.
― Neale Donald Walsch
I initially downloaded the above painting — Christmas Eve, painted by Carlton Alfred Smith (1853 – 1946) in 1901 — on Wikimedia Commons, which I then cropped and edited. You can download a high-res 6" x 4" @ 300 ppi JPEG of my digitally enhanced version here. I thought it would be interesting as a greeting card or incorporated into a collage or junk journal project but you can also simply print and frame for wall art.


Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain fine art are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Vintage Art Appreciation: Young Lady in a Flower Garden by Tivadar Zemplényi

Young Lady in a Flower Garden
by Tivadar Zemplényi (1864 - 1917)

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud
was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
― Anaïs Nin

What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.
― Jane Goodall

The lotus is the most beautiful flower, whose petals open one by one. But it will only grow in the mud.
In order to grow and gain wisdom, first you must have the mud --- the obstacles of life and its suffering. ... The mud speaks of the common ground that humans share, no matter what our stations in life. ... Whether we have it all or we have nothing, we are all faced with the same obstacles: sadness, loss, illness, dying and death. If we are to strive as human beings to gain more wisdom, more kindness and more compassion, we must have the intention to grow as a lotus and open each petal one by one.
― Goldie Hawn