"Back to Life"
Original watercolour
by
Glenn Marshall

http://glenn-marshall.artistwebsites.com/featured/1-back-to-life-glenn-marshall.html

The first time you ever take paintings to a gallery is a very, very stressful experience. I had been avoiding the inevitable for a while but the day would finally dawn.
I was having my hair cut when my lovely wife announced she had found a gallery that was advertising for new artists and that she would make an appointment for me. I was so startled that I ended up with a 'mohican'....well not quite....but I did jump a bit!
So the dreaded morning arrived and off we went. The gallery was called Windows on the Moors and was situated in Rosedale Abbey a delightful village in the outskirts of the North Yorkshire Moors.
We were met by the owner - Monique - and her daughter in law - Sarah. They were very nice and took us into the gallery to have a look round. The gallery was a converted chapel and the 'window on the moor' was an exquisite stained glass window that flooded the gallery with fantastic light. There was a wide variety of paintings on the wall but the one thing they had in common was that they all looked like masterpieces compared to mine!
Monique was a Belgian - yes a Belgian like Hercule Poirot, he of the little grey cells - and she was so enthusiastic about promoting art in this quiet corner of Yorkshire.
But now it was my turn to let them see my paintings. I remember walking back down the steps to the car and then having to walk back up clutching my efforts, thinking "What am I doing here!".
I had brought seven, a good selection, hoping they might just pick one. We laid them out propped up against chairs for inspection. There was complete silence for a while. It seemed like hours to me though it was just a few minutes. Finally Sarah spoke, "Yes" she said"I am sure we can sell these". The elation was incredible especially when they took all seven!
I suppose you could say that this was the beginning of my success...it was certainly an inspiration to keep going.
Sadly Monique passed away a few years later and Sarah was not able to keep the gallery open but I will always be grateful to them both for giving me the opportunity to show my paintings in their lovely gallery.  This is a good time too to record my heartfelt thanks to Merice - the lovely wife mentioned at the beginning. She has supported, encouraged and sometimes 'driven' me (as in this case!) from the very start down to the present day, indeed without her I would never have got this far...so many,many thanks.