Stories are everywhere

A couple of weekends ago, I took my teens to a local artisan market, the Makers Market at Chester. I bribed them both with a fiver to spend and they happily pootled round the market with me.

Near the entrance of the market, I spotted an artist's stall when we first arrived. In our new house, we'll need some new artwork and there were all kind of gorgeous prints to choose from.

Donning my sensible hat though, I decided to save my money until I'd been round the rest of the market.

If you ever have the chance to visit a Makers Market (and that's your kind of thing - food, handcrafted goods, artwork), then get yourself along there. My teens were especially impressed with the  macaroons and burgers.

By the time we got back to the entrance, on the way out, I half expected that the one print that had really caught my eye would be gone, but I was in luck.

If I'm like a kid in the proverbial sweet shop with stationery and books, then artwork comes a close third.

As I was looking for the stallholder to pay, a lady piped up, "Do you know where that is?". I told her that I did. I'd photographed that same scene many times before (that's my photo alongside a sliver of the print above). "I commissioned it," she told me proudly.

It turns out that this lady's son proposed to his girfriend at the bandstand and when the two were married, this lady commissioned the artwork as a wedding present.

"What a lovely story," I responded, and it was, but what I was really thinking was wow, another story found me.

The artist is a lady called Jenny Dunlop. If you visit her website and online shop, you'll find all kinds of gorgeous, colourful images of animals and streetscenes, sometimes combined with embroidery, fabric and beads.

I may only have a print of the original art but it's all the more precious for knowing the story behind it.

There are stories everywhere if we just keep our eyes and ears open to let them in.

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