An abstract painting with provenance in 1960s New York City found its way to the North Olympic Peninsula last month when the Port Angeles daughter of the art collector who bought the painting returned it to the Port Townsend daughter of the man who created it.

Port Angeles-area resident Ann Bogard, now a teacher in the Quilcene School District, remembers the day in 1963 when her parents found the painting in a Soho gallery before hanging it on their dining room wall in the New York suburbs.

She remembers the painting as the backdrop of her childhood and how she became aware of the social turbulence of the 1960s.

“That painting has a lot of stories to tell,”she said.

“It was in the room when we were all talking about what was happening at the time, having to do with civil rights, the women’s movement and the Vietnam War.”

Bogard, her parents and her younger sister all found solace in the untitled painting, a 4-foot square of indistinct yellow trees.

A few years ago, Bogard’s parents downsized and moved in with her sister, and the painting was stored in the attic.

Bogard asked her parents to ship her the painting, but when it arrived, it didn’t fit her house.

It was too large for the space, and the only available spot did not capture the light as it did when she was younger.

On a whim, she searched the artist’s name, Hal Lemmerman, and found his obituary dated March 2010.

More significantly, she found that Lemmerman’s daughter, Joann Saul, lives in Port Townsend.

Saul owns and operates Fins Coastal Cuisine at 1019 Water St. in downtown Port Townsend, as well as Dream City Market and Cafe at Kala Point Road and state Highway 19.

Saul was surprised to get Bogard’s call, and the surprise turned to delight when Bogard said she wanted to make a gift of the painting.

While her father — named Harold but generally known as Hal — created and sold hundreds of works of art, his oil paintings were so rare that Saul did not own one.

Saul had never seen the painting, and for good reason.

“I was probably in my mother’s belly when he painted it,” she said.

Saul and her daughter, Brooke, drove out to Bogard’s house last week. The two hit it off, both women said.

Saul took the painting home and intends to do some restorative work before possibly hanging it in Fins.

Saul moved to Port Townsend in 1995 and owned several restaurants, including The Public House Grill and Satosa’s Japanese Restaurant, before opening Fins about 10 years ago.

Her father visited Port Townsend several times. He made an impression on the community, particularly when he painted a replica of the clock tower that won an award in the 2000 Rhody parade.

“He was very sweet,” Mari Mullen, Main Street executive director, said of Lemmerman.

“After we met him, he always kept in touch and sent us custom-drawn cards on holidays.”

Lemmerman was a professor of art at New Jersey City University in Jersey City, N.J., for 37 years and directed the university’s two art galleries for 18 years before his retirement.

Following his retirement, one of the galleries was renamed the Harold B. Lemmerman Gallery.

He was active in both theater and art. As a member of the Southern Vermont Arts Center, during his retirement, he continued to paint in a studio in the refurbished 1911 train station in Arlington, Vt.

“He was on the East Coast when he died, so I wasn’t able to get much to remember him by when he died, which makes this painting all the more valuable to me,” Saul said.

Neither Saul nor Bogard knows how much the painting is worth, and Bogard doesn’t recall how much her parents paid for it, “although it was probably a lot in 1960s dollars.”

But there was never any question: Bogard would not charge Saul for the painting.

“My father agreed with that decision,” Bogard said.

“He has always been very generous, and giving Joann the painting was the right thing to do,” she added.

And for Saul, the “right thing to do” was to treat Bogard and her family to a meal at Fins.

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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.