The Boston man flew back to Savannah on a special mission: to buy the painting he and his prospective bride had seen two months before.

The painting had since haunted their minds. Trouble is, they couldn't remember the gallery where they had seen it. So now he searched art-rich Savannah.

Finally, in River Street's East End Gallery, he found the painting they couldn't forget and bought it. The painting was Sandy Branam's "The Armagh Rhymers."

Inspired by traditional performers at Savannah's last Irish Festival, the painting shows strolling, drum-beating rhymers (storytellers) entertaining an Irish village. Now, a gift for a bride, "The Armagh Rhymers" will emblazon a wall in Beantown.

The Boston man and his bride were lucky. Not many of Branam's paintings hang on the gallery wall that long. Sometimes people buy them right off her easel, even before she can finish them.

Such was the case of another painting with an Irish theme, "Babysitting on St. Patrick's Day." It depicts a glum young man amid River Street revelers. He is dressed for the day but walking a worried-looking dog and demanding little sister.

Branam started the painting twice, and each time buyers had to have it, even though she explained that it was unfinished. She finally hid in her studio to finish a third version.

Branam often attracts viewers as she sketches at restaurants, concerts, fashion shows, sporting events, and even courtroom trials (when she was doing jury duty). People also see her painting on Savannah's squares, at Tybee Beach, and in the East End Gallery, a cooperative of nine award-winning artists.

What makes Sandy Branam's paintings hard to forget? The answer, aside from her talent, is that she does not stick to any one medium, style, or subject matter. Instead, her work is versatile and dynamic.

"Some artists cultivate a trademark style or subject matter. I'm just the opposite," she says. "I like to approach each new painting differently --even the small paintings that I do so they are affordable to everyone.

"Maybe you could say that, at the age of 63, I'm still learning and developing. I'd like to think so."

Branam began drawing as a toddler and by age 11 was taking art classes. She went on to study painting at universities in this country and Britain.

But she still takes learning seriously. Even though busy producing work for galleries, shows and commissions, she continues to consult art books and magazines, attend workshops and life study classes and frequent art exhibits. She sketches constantly, works on the scene, takes photographs, and sometimes reads voluminously in researching a painting. "I like to feel myself into the painting," she says.

The feeling that Branam puts into a painting reaches out and grabs you. Sometimes the energy of the work is almost kinetic, like that in "Unplugged at the JEA," a painting of the Savannah Symphony in performance. The painting is owned by a local doctor, an avid collector of her work.

"I wanted to capture the feeling of all that music and the way orchestra members were throwing themselves into it," says Branam.

A similar energy, modulated by nostalgia, comes through in a recent painting, "Winner at the County Fair," which foregrounds a farmer, sheep, and friends against show tents and a Ferris wheel.

Like "Winner at the County Fair," many of Branam's paintings complexly mix a bit of humor with the other feelings. Some have more outright humor, such as satirical beach scenes featuring bloated bodies and feeding frenzies.

A favorite print selling at East End Gallery (the original painting sold long ago) is "Old Glory," a backside view of an aging lady flopped belly-down on the beach and wearing an American flag bikini.

But in other paintings Branam captures the beauty of trees blooming in spring, a woman strolling with her parasol and moonlight shining on her studio in Thunderbolt.