A LONG-LOST PAINTING FOUND

Some 20 years ago, 1 added a second story to my 1946 Orange Grove cottage house. It was the dawning of the do-it-yourself era, and I did a lot of the work myself. One day while working on the house, I was delighted to see three artists had set up their easels on the sidewalk and began sketching and watercoloring my house under construction. 1 went out to talk to the artists and found out that it was Anaheim resident Don May working with two students. May was a well-known artist who painted Christmas cards for the Hilton Hotel Corporation. One of his students was Mrs. Ganahl, the matriarch of Ganahl Lumber. For years I wondered what became of those three paintings of my house under construction. I knew May and Ganahl had both passed away, and 1 wondered if 1 would ever find any of those paintings. I even went to an estate sale at Don May s house, thinking maybe there would be some clues. Nothing ever turned up. About a years ago, I was at the Placentia Woodcarvers weekly gathering and I was telling themembers about the grand opening of Anaheim s Founders Park. As I was describing the park, Judy Broberg, the woman sitting next to me, asked if that was where the old Red Cross Building was located because a long time ago she had painted it in an art class. Right away, 1 asked Broberg if by any chance she had taken a class from Don May. She said yes. I asked her if Mrs. Ganahl was in the class. Again, she said yes. But she wasn t the one who sat on North Street in Anaheim, painting a house under co"But maybe it was my neighbor, she suggested. Broberg immediately placed a phone call to her neighbor. Sue Hartmann. After a bit of back and forth, Hartmann asked, Was the house under construction, and was there a little photo of her house in the Sunset magazine in the letters to the editor section? 1 started jumping up and down. Yes! Yes! That was it. Hartmann thought she still had the painting of my house under construction in her portfolio. A week later, she met me at my carving class and presented me with her painting. It was a miracle! To think that after all these years, 1 finally met the second student who set up her easel infiont of my house some 20 years ago - and I now had possession of one of the paintings. Hartmann did watercolors of many historical homes in Anaheim when she was a student of Don May. She is now in the process of placing her paintings with current homeowners who would appreciate her artistic renditions. - Jill Worley is a retired school teacher amilife loneim.