Elliott's portrait is a gift of love
Posted: Friday, May 8, 2009 12:00 am
Last November, Jean-Marie Chapman, a Lake Oswego portrait artist (www.jeanmarieportraits.com), met Cannon Beach resident Cynthia Elliott, who lost her 16-year-old son, Elliott Hearing, in a drowning accident in 2007. Cynthia wanted Chapman to do a portrait of Elliott, but since such a commission was beyond her means, Chapman generously decided to do the painting as a gift.
"Elliott and Midnight Remembered" was inspired by a photo of a moment shared by Elliott and the horse he loved, Midnight, owned by the Sea Ranch RV Park & Stables in Cannon Beach. Born at midnight, the horse was jet black, but turned white as he got older. Elliott worried when the horse went out to winter pasture, so he would go check on him. The photo was taken on one such visit. Sadly, Midnight also died in 2007, during the Great Coastal Gale.
The portrait was unveiled last Saturday at the Cannon Beach Hotel to a large group that included Cynthia, Elliott's sisters, Maria, Faitha and Valeena Hearing, his grandparents, Don and Grace Elliott, his father, Merrit Hearing, an aunt, uncle and cousins.
"I will just tell you that I was greatly relieved and moved by the reaction of the family to the portrait," Chapman said. "The family sat up close as I told the process of creating the portrait of Elliott. I knew they were hoping for something, an essence of Elliott, and I was wanting that for them with all of my heart. I spent six months with the portrait of Elliott prior to the unveiling. I'd never met this boy, but when I finished the portrait I felt I'd known him for many years."
Everyone was crying at the unveiling, Cynthia said, but she was so amazed she couldn't cry. "I looked at him with wonderment," Cynthia said. "I think it's stunning."
Cynthia says she goes to visit the painting, which will be on display for a month, all the time. "It's like he's standing in the room with me," she said. "It's a joyous portrait, and not what I was expecting at all."
Elleda Wilson
Reprinted with permission of The Daily Astorian of Astoria, Oregon.
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