Over 18 months ago, I took 6 paintings in to my gallerist. She sent 4 of them back with them, declaring them unfit to be seen, and most definitely unfit to be sold.
I was devastated. I was proud of the work, and couldn’t understand why she’d been so upset. She’d hated them.
In a way, I’m grateful – it spurred me on to bigger and better things. It was what made me apply to study in France this year. I knew there had to be more than tourist galleries in my small town.
But those 4 pieces came home with me to become the black sheep of my body of work. They didn’t go on the site. I stripped the varnish from them, determined to “fix” them.
One, I fixed and it now hangs over my bed. It was the first one to be included on the site again earlier this year. The other 3 were abandoned.
That is, until last week, when I decided that it was time to give these pieces the love and attention they deserved.
It’s taken over a year for me to realize that there was nothing wrong with these pieces except they weren’t summery enough for the gallery owner’s taste – she loved summer and abhors every other season. My paintings were of the autumn. Oops.
There was one painting in particular that she was especially dismissive of, pointing at it and asking me how I could even paint something that dark, grim and horrible.
That was the piece I decided to tackle first. But as I sat pondering it, I realized there was little I truly wanted to change. I slightly adjusted the composition, used my mad new colour theory skillz to tweak the colours and popped up the brights to create a little more contrast.
That was it. I did maybe 2 hours work, tops. I was happy with it, and that’s all that mattered.
So I’m happy to announce that this pretty little thing is now up for sale on the site! (It’s actually not that little, being a 16”x20” canvas with a gorrrrgeous frame around it.)
Landscape in Blue & Gold © Sarah Marie Lacy, 2011 - 16"x20" oil on canvas, framed. $800
If you want to take this darling home with you, then click here to go to the sales page. (Ask me about payment plans! No really, ask me!)
Tomorrow, tune in to find out what happened to the painting that got away…
(And happy Thanksgiving to my American friends! I am definitely grateful for your support and love! I’ll be eating stuffing and roast potatoes in your honour tonight.)