I guess it really should not be a surprise for parents of multiple children to find ink and crayon often scrawled all over all of the wrong places. A good friend of mine, who just so happens to be a collector of the artwork of the late Thomas Kinkade, found this out the hard way. Over the couch in their living room, they had a huge, lovely, valuable Kinkade canvas. Their youngest daughter thought it was absolutely lovely. She also, though, thought that it could be even lovelier still, and she set about making it so, at least in her mind.
Ink pen.
Hear, please, in your mind, the sound of many thousands of dollars worth of value being sucked down the drain.
To his credit, my dear friend never so much as raised his voice at his daughter. Little kids do what little kids do, and they simply have to be taught the dos and the dont’s.
Fine artwork should be treated, oh, so very carefully. While certainly not wealthy enough to collect any originals, Dana and I have been blessed to be able to get several nice prints, some on canvas, from some of our favorite artists: Kinkade, Phillip Philbeck, Mark Keathley and Abraham Hunter. My favorite, “Light of the World” by Keathley, also has a personal sketch of his on the back that he drew as we sat and talked to him, making it that much more precious to me.