Jackie's brother-in-law was a painter, so here she shares her memories about his artworks and the way his art impacted her. His name was Paul Landry, and his artwork can be viewed on his website: https://www.paullandryart.com/ 

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          “He’s from Nova Scotia, and he started off with sea captains, I guess that’s what he was familiar with. His father was a doctor I think, up in Nova Scotia, I don’t know the connection with the sea captains though maybe that’s just part of Nova Scotia.

          Then he went into mostly floral things, with the houses and the water and all that. Very calming type of pictures, I don’t know what kind of art you would consider it. Not modern, but it’s, you know. He had his followers too, who would just buy from him. If they knew he had a new painting coming out, they would just buy it no matter what, without even seeing it.

          I liked all his works. When he started off, he did a small painting of a bouquet of daisies, it was beautiful. I always loved it, it was in my bedroom. One of the paintings he did for us, it was a paperboy throwing the newspaper on the porch or in the yard. And my kids were both paper boys so that’s why he did it. It was a nice gesture, we really appreciated it. I have three of his paintings in my room now.

          He framed all his own paintings also. His wife would help with the packaging and stuff like that, she was a big part of it. And his oldest boy too, he helped with the framing… Or maybe it was his youngest one, I forget. They lived up in Connecticut, so we didn’t see them all that often.

          I can’t say his art practice had a big impact on me, they lived in Connecticut and we lived up here (in New York state), and they’d come up for Thanksgivings and things like that. We went to one of his shows, his gallery shows, it was very nice work.

          I know the gallery showings were in California, in Carmel. They’d go out there now and then, he and his wife. And then in Southport, Connecticut was another gallery. And Fairfield also, I think there was one but not definite. I know we went to one, maybe it was in Southport, I can’t remember for sure it was so long ago.

          He had his workshop in a garage on their property, he turned it into his workshop which was nice. He started off working at the Famous Artists School in Westport, and then from there he went into individual work. When he first started his own painting, trying it on his own, he was in an art show up in the Colonie Mall. I remember he stayed with us for a couple of days, and every day he went up to the art show to exhibit his paintings, that was nice. That was kind of a rat race though, doing that for a while until he got on his feet and became well-known. You see his paintings on greeting cards and calendars and things now. He did Lang calendars, for years we always got one. And it was nice.”

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Jackie had spent years admiring Paul's artwork, but had put less thought into her own experiences with art. After talking about the different forms that "art" can come in, she had some more ideas: 

         “I am not an artist in any way. Music I love, I like a lot of different kinds. I like country, and the oldies, the ‘50s and ‘60s and ‘70s, all of that. And the real oldies, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, but as far as drawing that’s not my thing.”