09/19/2026
Enjoy this remarkable story about how a painting of Rapid River found its way home.
Cindy Giroux shares:
“A young friend of the family, Tom Craves, whom I haven't seen in person for many years, randomly reaches out to me on Messenger. He was putting up interior pine boards in his camp on the Lohness Farm Road and included a picture hung in the loft.
He asks if we knew a ‘Geon Pearson’ who is the artist of the painting. I told him that name did not ring a bell;however we do know Ben Pearson, from The Narrows, on Upper Richardson Lake, whose family has owned their camp since 1905.
We went on to share with Tom that his family owned Pearson S***f Company out of Byfield, Massachusetts and sold Red Top S***f (s***f is a to***co product finely ground into a powder).
Tom shared that the painting, done on wooden boards, was acquired from a friend who bought it in Maine, moved to Alaska, and brought it back to Sherman, Maine where it was deemed no longer useful or joyful and was destined for the burn pile.
The piece itself, said to be a scene on Rapid River of a fly fisherman casting his line, is quite big at 4 feet long and 3 feet tall.
Tom, knowing the Rapid River well, and still frequenting the area regularly declared he'd love to have the painting for his camp. As we continued to message back and forth, Tom noted a date which looked to be “‘44” alongside the signature and also a branded stamp centered at the very top that read “Byfield S***f Co”.
The connection was made!
Not even a week later, I met up with Ben Pearson at the annual meeting of Friends of Richardson, which was held at the South Arm Campground. After the meeting I was anxious to speak with Ben and catch up as we hadn't seen each other for awhile.
I lead with “Ben, do you know a Geon Pearson?” He replied that he did not and asked why.
I told him of Tom's out of the blue message and about a painting he saved from certain doom.
I told him it seems to be painted on the side of a crate.
That's when he looked at me with a curious expression and asked “Do you have a picture?”
As I pulled it up and gave it to him, he enlarged the picture and went to the signature.
With misty eyes, he looked at me and said “That's Jean Pearson. This is my Mother. My Mother painted this picture!” Ben shared that the date was “‘94” and she used the tops of old s***f crates for many of her paintings. I said that Tom insisted on “dropping some history back to where it belongs” and that was the start of reuniting a piece of art back to someone who just had an unexpected connection to his Mom.
On a very windy Labor Day Tom and his family and some friends boated into our dock with this huge and heavy painting and made a handoff in choppy waters. For his kindness, Tom was given a beautiful hard cover book of Ben Pearson's Photography, with a personal inscription from Ben, which ended in “My Mother would be so pleased”.
Today, September 19, Ben boated down from The Narrows to accept ownership of what he declared to be his "new most favorite piece of art".
Through tearful eyes he marveled at the colors she used, the sheer size of the piece and the remarkable synchronicity of a moment, a connection to the past and a treasure trove of memories it evoked.
Moral of the story…reach out to people and make a connection. From the kindness of Tom Craves, in the giving of a piece of art that he liked very much, Ben received a precious link to his mother and for a brief moment in time, I was a broker of Fine Art.”
❤️
