At last my book arrived. The big envelope appeared in my mail with all the usual markings from Quarto in London.
I looked at the envelope and wondered what I would find inside. The first few months after I was finished with my work on this book about painting flowers, I was so sick of the entire project I did not want to see any part of it.
A huge amount of work had been crammed into a short period of time with some intense deadlines. The process certainly took its toll on me.
As time passed I recovered from the worst of those pressures and my aversion to seeing the work gradually transformed into an apprehension about the finished book. Would the colors be accurate? I had complained about some of the blues in particular in the proofs.
I did not want to cringe every time I looked at the images. So I quietly worried about the color, but the book was going through the printing process so it was clearly out of my hands.
My friends asked if I was excited about the book being published and were surprised when I answered that I just hoped I would be ready to look at all that stuff again when it was done.
So there it lay, hidden from view in the envelope. I took my scissors out of the drawer and cut the end off the envelope. Out came the book.
I immediately liked the cover, which at least was a good start. The final title on the Australian version under the imprint of Simon and Schuster was The Acrylic Painter’s A-Z of Flowers. I think the American version has a slightly different title.
As I looked through the book, relief rose as I saw page after page with excellent color reproduction. The results were better than the proofs, better than I had hoped.
The art department at Quarto also did a wonderful job on the layouts. They had to compress a great deal of instructional information into a small space without losing clarity, all the while showing the finished floral paintings to advantage.
I found myself well pleased with the results. Now, unexpectedly, I really am excited!
RiverStone Gallery will be featuring the book at a book signing event in November, the date to be announced. Or autographed copies can be purchased directly from my new art blog. Contact Lexi Sundell if you want to participate, even if by long distance.
 
 
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