The first time someone praised a landscape painting Robert Montesino made, he shuddered, stifling an uncomfortable surge of pleasure he hadn’t let himself feel since 2007, when his father and younger brother died two months apart.Montesino gave the painting to its admirer, thinking nothing of its value, and thinking only how swabbing a brush against canvas somehow beat back chronic depression, thoughts of suicide and what he calls “a general feeling of deep-rooted sadness.” “I’ve lost so many people. For reasons I can’t explain, my life was spared. Why them and not me?” says Montesino, 64, of Hollywood.
