Painters

There's a woman of 78 who lives in Hay on Wye and paints, mainly landscapes. When she was getting on in years she said to her daughter; "What are old women supposed to do?" Her daughter said: "You used to be able to draw, why not do that?"
So Jean Millar did draw. And paint. Now she's attained some fame and her paintings sell quite well.
My father took up painting in his seventies. He'd had no training, wasn't particularly good at drawing, but taught himself, first using watercolours then oils. We have a few examples of his work on our walls, most of them copies of famous artists, particularly Van Goch.
He never sold any. Never tried to. Gave some to his sister-in-law and some to my brother.
One, "Ben Gunn's Dream", was an original of his: a small painting of cheeses of various kinds. I like it.
I like it much more than Lucien Freud's "Benefits Supervisor Sleeping" which sold yesterday for 33.6 million dollars. I think it's ugly.
And I like it much more than any Francis Bacon whose works sell for millions.
But who am I to judge these things? If I draw a cat it looks like a dog and if I draw a dog it looks like a horse.
But now I come to think of it, Francis Bacon couldn't draw either, so he maintained - and I believe him.