It's never too late to be what you might have been.
George Eliot
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The other day a gallery owner friend gave me a refrigerator magnet with this quotation on it. I came by to show him my coloring line, newly completed. I didn't expect him to be impressed, because I know he thinks these small commercial ventures are a waste of my time. After being pleasantly surprised at how much he liked the coloring portfolios, he went into the kitchen and got this magnet for me. "Here," he said. "You take this and look at it every day. I want you to go out and buy a canvas. It can be no less than 4ft x 6 ft. I want to see one of your spectacular floral drawings transferred into a large color painting. You need to move into a new domain now. No excuses. When you can hang that painting on my wall, then give me back the magnet."
At first I was scared and very upset. I've never done a painting that large. I consider myself an illustrator. Everything I do is small. What if I can't do it.... blah blah blah. So I drove myself an hour to Rutland to an art store and stood staring at their large canvases. I nearly threw up I was so nervous. And, of course, that night I couldn't sleep.
Last night, two days later, I met W. again at the gallery. He wanted to show me something. In the lower room of his spectacular three storey Studio 47 Gallery, he had set up a projector and on a huge blank wall, projected some of my floral drawings and illustrations. I have to say, they looked wonderful. "See," he crooned. "They are stunning in this size."
So now my nervousness is coupled with excitement about moving ahead in this way. I have two commission projects I am currently working on, which should be finished in a couple of weeks and then...
I will be making a trip back to that store to buy a canvas. We'll see what comes of it.
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