Art Owner

Last night I attended an art auction fundraiser with K for Big Brothers Big Sisters. We went mainly because neither of us had ever been to an art auction before.

I wasn't planning to buy anything of course. But when we walked in the door, we both spotted a colorful oil painting--the same artist from the restaurant in New York City. The artist is J. Roybal, and he paints whimsical scenes of children playing instruments, or children on bicycles, or children in hot air balloons. They're not syrupy sweet, cutesy paintings of kids; they have lots of character. An off-kilter kind of whismy.

Anyway, I won (for minimum bid) a small Roybal painting (original) of a quartet of musicians. I just love it. Right now it's on display on my music stand. :-)

But that's not all.... I bought a few raffle tickets and put them in to win gift certificates (mostly restaurants). On a whim I put a ticket in to win an autographed baseball signed by Lou Merloni (Framingham native, went to Providence College, played for the Red Sox). I figured that if I actually won it (but I wouldn't of course. I never win anything) I would donate it to Habitat's auction in the spring. And what do you know? I won the baseball.

A painting and a baseball.

What a night.