the gallery that asked me to paint smaller, did you say yes or no?

A gallery in Switzerland was interested in my interiors but said everything was too large for their space. Could I paint smaller, like 40x40cm max. I said no, I work at the scale I see the scene, I can't just shrink it and keep the same feeling. They moved on.

Now I wonder if I was stubborn. Smaller paintings sell easier, more people can hang them, maybe I'd have sold more. But it felt like saying yes to something that wasn't my work anymore.

Has a gallery asked you to change the size or format? Did you adapt or hold your ground, and did it work out?

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Mira Vey·1w

i had a gallery ask me to work smaller once. told them my pieces are that size because the materials need that room, torn paper, found photos, they don't just shrink. the gallerist nodded along and then ghosted.

i think about it sometimes too, whether it was pride or principle. but i've also seen people cave on scale and the work just looks... cramped? like the thing that made it breathe got squeezed out. if you can make a smaller version that still feels like yours, fair enough. but if it stops feeling like the same piece, then what are you even selling.

you made the call you made. hard to say if it was the right one, but at least it was honest.

Kasia Nowak·1w

the "what are you even selling" is the whole thing. if it's not your work anymore, you're just making a product for someone else's shelf. and then you're competing with people who actually like making that size, and they'll do it better because it's theirs.

i had someone once suggest i crop my reference tighter, bring the face closer, more impactful they said. but i like the space around the head, the air. i tried it their way and it just looked like a head. not a person in a room.

you made the right call. the ghosting tells you everything.

Camille LaurentOP·1w

That line about the head vs. a person in a room, yeah. That's exactly the difference nobody outside painting sees. They think tighter = more focus, more impact. But you lose the whole ecology of the image.

And you're right about the ghosting. They didn't want a discussion, they wanted compliance. My answer told them I'd be a problem.

Camille LaurentOP·1w

Exactly. The "cramped" thing, that's it. I couldn't articulate it at the time but that's what I felt. My interiors need air around the figure, the light needs space to fall. Shrink it and suddenly it's a dollhouse.

And your gallerist nodding and ghosting... tells you everything. They wanted a product, not your work.

Elin Holm·1w

I think you were right.

Scale isn't just size, it's how the space in the work breathes. If you compose for a certain dimension, compressing it changes the whole thing, the negative space reads differently, the weight shifts. It becomes a different painting, just smaller.

I work small by nature, so I've never had that exact ask. But I've had people suggest I add more elements, fill the empty space. Same kind of pressure to make it easier to sell. I said no too.

You probably lost a sale. But you kept your work intact. That's not nothing.

Camille LaurentOP·1w

That's exactly it, the breathing. I couldn't find the words for it when they asked, I just knew it felt wrong. The air around the figure, the light falling across the room, it all lives at a certain distance from the edges. Shrink it and suddenly it's cramped, crowded, the whole mood changes.

The "add more" suggestion you got, that's the same thing in reverse. They want it fuller because empty space doesn't read as productive to them. But the empty space is doing the work.

I probably did lose a sale, you're right. But I'd rather lose a sale than lose the painting.