The Best Gift You Can Give Someone Is a Feeling

By Liz Neighbors | Liz Neighbors Studios

Mom took me out of school early one afternoon in fifth grade. We drove from Manhasset all the way to the Brooklyn Museum to see the Van Gogh exhibit. Just the two of us. I remember pressing my face close to the glass case to look at his house…those thick, bold, unbelievable colors. I had never seen anything like it. I went home a completely different kid.

I think about that afternoon a lot.

How one afternoon can do that. How one exhibit, one well-chosen gift, one beautiful thing can completely change the way you see.

This past Christmas, Santa brought me a set of oil pastels. A full set, lined up like little soldiers in order by color, cellophane still on…I ripped it right off. Lacey planted herself next to me ready for a nap and I went straight to tulips. Bold, bright, completely Van Gogh-influenced tulips. Full circle, right?! That gift cracked something open in me all over again. The best gifts always do.

Here's what I know about gifts after all these years…another candle, another gift card, another thing that gets quietly returned in January — nobody really remembers those. But art? Art goes on the wall. Art gets looked at every single morning over coffee. Art is the thing a friend notices when she walks in and says "oh, I love that — where is that from?"

Griff's parents brought me a blue pitcher back from Greece years ago. That particular blue — a real Greek island blue — found its way into my painting "Wild Blueberry Swirl" decades later. I still have that pitcher. That's what beautiful things do…they stay with you. They work their way into everything.

So here's what I make and love to send out into the world…

Original paintings one of a kind, no two alike. For the person in your life who wants something nobody else has.

Fine art prints beautiful quality prints of my originals. A beach house, a nursery, a dining room, an office that needs some color and life…they all deserve a good print.

Notecards okay I know, I know, I'm always the last one to get my own cards in the mail. But my notecard sets are honestly such a sweet gift, especially paired with a print. The kind of thing people actually keep.

Custom pieces — this is where it really gets fun. The Falmouth Dog Park painting started as a custom request from someone with a vision and a lot of trust…and we made something neither of us could have predicted. I love a good custom story so much.

If you're stuck on what to give someone who has everything…give them a feeling. A Cape Cod summer morning. The sound of the ferry horn before leaving the dock for Nantucket. The burst of orange and yellow from a July garden. The blue of a perfect sailing afternoon. That's what a print or an original does — it gives people a feeling they get to live with every single day.

Shop prints, originals & notecards → [lizneighborsstudios.com]

Every order goes out with care…and a little piece of the story behind it. 🩷

Xo Liz

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