Taking risks... in The Fire Portrait (Part 2)

Frances McDonald, budding artist and English heroine of The Fire Portrait, didn't necessarily set out to take risks or break boundaries. But life has a way of presenting us with opportunities that we could either seize or recoil from, and Frances takes her chances, dicey though they often are. 

Now it's one thing to take a small risk... but what if the risk you take may undermine the success you've fought for - and diminish the financial independence you need?

A fire rips through France's home in the fictional town of Aloe Glen, in the 1940s. Her husband has already left to fight for the Allies in North Africa. There's a strong possibility that the fire was arson, for the community was reluctant to support Britain in the war and Frances and her husband are still seen as outsiders. Many of her paintings are damaged in the conflagration. The police investigation stalls. She decides to use the tragedy as a spur and sets out to paint fresh versions. When she is offered an exhibition of her work in Cape Town, she sees an opportunity, but a potentially dangerous one: to showcase new paintings, elegantly framed, alongside the fire-damaged originals, un-glassed and pegged beneath simple metal hangers. The organisers and the press are sceptical.
But why, Ma'am, would you choose to exhibit ruined work alongside pristine? 

Why indeed? It's a huge professional risk to ask viewers to understand why, and also hope that some of the work - either damaged or fresh - would be bought. The organisers consider that Frances is making a political statement, and doubt anyone will buy damaged goods. Yet, remarkably, the risk pays off. There is no adverse publicity. Every painting, both pristine and singed, is sold. Visitors to the exhibition write to say that the singed work is a cry for justice that hasn't been served.
It seems that the public have understood. As Frances says:
For me, these paintings reflect more than their subjects.
They show the passage of drought, fire, flood and war.
And the journey I have been privileged  - and challenged - to take...