Story Number Three: A Touch of Wonder

My third piece of the “childhood memories“ series, dedicated to my son Marty, which I finished just a few days ago, is called A Touch Of Wonder. The scene I captured took place in our neighborhood during the last holiday season.

Our community has a wonderful tradition called Luminari Night that happens around Christmas time. On that night, the residents take out thousands of candles and put them along the streets. People from all over San Ramon and surrounding cities come over to drive through or walk along the illuminated streets and enjoy the beautifully decorated houses. So much fun for both kids and adults! But especially kids!

Some decorations stay the same throughout the years and bring back warm memories; some are new to discover. One of our neighbors had these gigantic glowing ornaments, red, green, and gold, hanging from their front yard trees. Marty was awed! He came closer to reach out - and this is when I took this photo of him lit by the golden light, with his hands up in the air, waiting for a miracle to happen.

I reimagined the original reference quite a lot. Though the hat and mittens are still highly relevant on winter nights in our area, of course, we don’t have snow here in San Ramon. I also didn’t want to paint a dark night scene, so I tried my best to balance the light background while still preserving the magical glow.

After my brush touched the paper for the last time, I suddenly felt peace and fulfillment. So now I’m going to take a break and get back to some other subjects.