Today two gentlemen arrived at my studio to approve and collect a commissioned portrait. I have never been so nervous in my life at the prospects of dismay or disapproval of my artistic endeavours. My studio walls and floor edges are lined with paintings, in places stacked like slices of toast in a hotel kitchen, some of my best paintings and ones so dear to me that I just cannot offer for sale. Both pairs of visiting eyes homed onto a little 14 inch x 18 inch in the middle of all the colour and brush work, the painting that brought them from Birmingham. The eyes never left the little canvas "Mona Lisa",  "I'm weak at the knees", "look at her eyes,,, the skin tones" " it glows" ! I pray it has the same reaction to the final recipients and brings them joy in place of their sorrow. Should it please their eye as much as it was an honour for me to paint it, my task will be complete. Two new friends Andy and Lee left my studio with the little 14x18 inch portrait and I am convinced they noticed no other painting during the visit.   
"When it is dark enough, you can see the stars"
 
Ralph Waldo Emerson



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