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My husband and I recently went to watch the Vancouver Canucks' farm team play, and as we sat in the arena, watching the zamboni cruise around during intermission, I thought, “...prooobably I'm the only person in here working on a painting of one of those." It was such a surprising and charmingly niche request I had received a few weeks prior, and I was still tickled pink by it.
Vancouver-based designer The Best Nest Decor was hired to renovate the offices of a zamboni company. Familiar with my work, principle designer, Heather, thought to involve me in the refreshed “look."
I quoted on two 8 x 10" originals, one of a vintage zamboni, and the other of a contemporary machine, and it seemed the project would move forward. I was excited at the prospect. I mean, painting zambonis? So cool. I was totally in, and was looking forward to starting.
Then Heather came back having determined the office could support much larger paintings; would I be able to do them 24 x 30" instead?
Oh dear, I thought. That's enormous. Hmmmmmm.
After much deliberation, I realized I needed to back out of the project; scaling to that size with detailed watercolour sketching just seemed like the wrong medium; perhaps an acrylic artist working on canvas was a better option for the client, and I communicated as much. I was disappointed; my cool, zamboni-opportunity was now lost.
Heather came back with a solution; hadn't one of my paintings ended up on the side of a semi-truck? (true story). She wondered how that had happened, and could we do something simliar here, and make enlargements?
Genius. So we landed back on the two 8 x 10" paintings, with her agreeing with the company owner to frame the originals for his private office. After making high resolution scans of the originals, I had them reproduced as fine art reproductions, hitting the requested 24 x 30".
Win, win, WIN!