Gumballs Found a New Home!

Gumballs
Original oil painting by Jane McElvany Coonce

Every Christmas, we attend a White Elephant party.  Everyone who attends is to bring a gift that the person has found in their attic.  The gifts are supposed to be funny and ridiculous.  Several years ago, Tom won this gum ball machine.  He loved it and has proudly displayed it in our kitchen ever since.  He keeps a jar of pennies by it so that people can help themselves to the gum.  It's a big hit with my sons and their friends.  

I painted the gum ball machine and the jar of pennies back in 2013.  I've always liked this painting and has been surprised that it hadn't sold.  The paintings I like seem to take a long time to sell, and the ones that aren't at the top of my list, sell the first time I show them.   I've never really understood this phenomenon, but it happens a lot.   

I put this painting down at The Art League at the Torpedo Factory in Old Town Alexandria.  I got an email yesterday that it sold!  I was thrilled, but also glad that a painting that I really enjoyed painting and that I really liked was finally validated by someone wanting to own it.  Not that a paintings value is based on whether it sells or not, but I've often wondered why the paintings I love the most take the longest to sell.  For an artist, it's one of those mysteries of life.