the gallery that wanted me to work faster, anyone else?
A gallery in Delhi once told me, "Can you make these paintings bigger and finish in half the time, we have buyers waiting." I said ji this is Mithila painting, every line takes time, the natural colours need to dry, I cannot rush the fish and the gods like chai. They did not understand.
This happened with you also? Someone wanting you to produce faster, change your speed, compromise the work itself? How you handled it?
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oh man this hits. i had someone at a local market ask me why i couldn't just "loosen up" my watercolors and pump out more prints, like i was being precious about it? and i just stood there trying to explain that the way i layer washes literally cannot be rushed, the paper needs to be bone dry between layers or it turns into a muddy mess. they looked at me like i was speaking another language lol
"cannot rush the fish and the gods like chai" is gonna stick with me honestly. that's the whole thing right there. some work just has its own pace and the people who don't get it think you're being difficult. but the people who do get it? they're the ones who buy the piece and actually look at it for a while instead of just wanting something for their wall.
did you end up saying no to them or did you find some middle ground?
Yes, exactly this. The watercolour layers, my daughter also does watercolour, she told me the same thing, the waiting between washes. People think drying time is just dead time. They do not understand the paper is working still.
And "loosen up", I have heard this also. Someone told me my lines are too fine, too many, can I not make it more simple, more modern. I said these lines are the story, if I remove them what remains. They had no answer.
Thank you for sharing your own. It helps to know we are many facing the same.