I was wondering if anyone didn't get a Secret Santa and thought I would start a blog for them to plead for restitution.
I gave a lathed pen to someone which was received and appreciated (thanks for the picture and kind words).
I asked for a painting (esp. watercolor) or landscape photo and, despite Connie's best efforts, am still waiting. Anyone want a pen for an xmas gift? If so exotic hardwood or acrylic?
This is my second year doing this show, which takes place in an absolutely gorgeous spot in the mountains of west/central Virginia.
My first year was not a bang-up show, but was solid enough that I thought I should try again. I live in Virginia, so it was not such a long drive (5 hours). In addition, I'd been amazed and honored to find that the show had chosen my art for their postcards, posters and program this year - and I thought this might help with sales.
Alas, it was not to be.
I am an oil painter with large, bright pieces. My prices run from $125 to $8500. I do not have prints.
The show's topography is interesting, and was different this year than it has been. It takes place in Claudius Crozet park, a beautiful spot with big green fields, a YMCA building with workout room and pool, and a playground. You can camp there during the show, and I did this, which of course cut my lodging costs deeply.
The largest group of artists and crafters is under a huge tent. The tent is open at the sides, and is lighted, but is still very dim. The booth fee ($300) includes electricity. In past years, there has been a second tent, not as large as the first, but this year, that tent was not used. There was a row of tents outside the big tent; artists choosing to set up their own tents in this row got a $50 discount. An artist I know who took this option was not happy with his sales, and said that basically, no one made it out to the tents. There are two small pavilions, also, and these are the prime spaces, brighter than the tents, cleaner and with easier load-in and load-out (I think). I asked for one but didn't get it.
Load-in runs the gamut from fairly easy to very difficult, depending on where you are. There's a large grass parking area across the entrance road from the west edge of the tent. I was on the west edge, so I was as close as one can be to the parking. Still, I had to use a dolly, and wheel my stuff up and down a small hill. Load-in and -out on the other side of the tent - and from the outside artist tents - was difficult, I was told.
There are good and bad parts about being along the edge. There is storage and seating space behind your booth if you're on the edge; if you're inside, there is zero storage space. It rained on and off all weekend, though, so I had to cover my stuff, and couldn't sit outside.
An additional issue for me was the height of the big tent at the outer edge. I use a Showoff tent, and my sidewalls attach via zippers along the bottom of the roof. The big tent started about an inch above the upper edge of my tent frame, so I couldn't put my roof on, and had to jury-rig the back wall. If it hadn't been drizzly and wet all weekend, I could have simply not put the wall up.
Turnout seemed to be lower this year than last year, especially on Saturday. On Sunday, Mother's Day, the crowd also seemed light, and there were lots of people with little kids, which bodes poorly for me. People wheeling strollers don't buy large paintings, I've learned.
People around me seemed to fare better than I did. A glass artist on one side, a photographer across the way and a jeweler across the aisle (I paid $25 extra for a corner), all seemed to do well. They were all from the area, and friends and family came to see them throughout the show. A painter friend from the Norfolk area did better, too, though her price points are generally lower than mine. A jeweler from Pennsylvania told me she had an excellent show, as well.
The quality of the work in this show seemed very uneven. There was some excellent, very high-level art and craft, and also some lower-end, lower-priced items. I didn't see any buy/sell, or at least none that I could identify, but some of the items made me shake my head and wonder a little bit.
Lodging is scarce in the area, and what is available is stupidly expensive, in my opinion ($135 a night was about average). Sleeping in the van has been a good option for me. You can camp on a level concrete area that is probably a basketball court. I have camped, both years, in a second grassy area fairly close to the concrete area, but quiet and more solitary. Showers and indoor bathrooms are available for campers, in the YMCA building.
Communication from the show was pretty good throughout. You pay your booth fee via an invoice that is not through Zapp, so that had me confused for a while, but the director was patient with me.
One look at Ron Roland’s art and it becomes obvious that he not only likes trees and color, but he likes perfectly shaped trees and beautiful, rich color.
The Florida painter describes his work as contemporary landscapes in acrylic impasto style on birch panels, noting that he has a “love affair with color and movement...I want my paintings to evoke participation. I want the viewer to be plunged into the scene by the simple act of viewing.”
Ron Roland is similarly caught up in his surroundings. In the Florida Panhandle he saw Hurricane Ivan first hand. Watching the fury of the storm descend and viewing the aftermath, so that now his landscapes have become a way to show our sometimes conflicted and ambivalent love affair with nature, the prevailing trees and water which the storm did not destroy.
“I paint larger than life treescapes using a bold palette with high contrast. My style uses an altered form of impasto painting. That is, I use a brush and not a palette knife to build up the paint to create texture. He paints wet-on-wet and the board is both the substrate and the palette, as he mixes colors as he paints directly on it.
After a long career in the arts that included being a graphic designer he is now participating in art fairs full time because of the opportunities to show his work to the large numbers of people who attend the shows.
See more of this exciting work: RonRolandart.com
Public Art Project on Tour in Basel, Manfred Kielnhofer
Shared by Austrian artist and designer Manfred Kielnhofer. The “Light Guards” project is further developed and become a ghost car touring in Basel art show during June 15 – 19 2011.
Eccentric art was also at Basel, if not as dominant a presence as the traditional buys. Ghost Car by Kielnhofer was a large white van with hooded figures driving outside the fair, and the Bleifrei (which translates to Lead Free in German) Art Collective told Art Info: “Art is like Jesus; it died and it’s coming again.”
Manfred Kielnhofer, Ghost Car (2011) Basel, via Kielnhofer.com
The grim seeker after truth
Anyone wondering why these grim reaper style figures were seated on this white van - look no further than the latest installation from artist Manfred Kielnhofer. He is from Haslach an der Mühl, in the district of Rohrbach in Upper Austria, Austria, and is an artist and designer whose work usually centres around the human anatomy. His recent piece of art is the Ghost Car, which is a product of the developing ‘Light Guards’ project. This project surfaced from the theory that humankind has always been able to boast having guardians in different ways, in potential danger from only themselves. This idea intrigued the artist Kielnhofer, who approached it with his artwork, intertwining the theme of longing for security harboured by all humans. The Ghost Car portrays a sizely white van driving, seating sheet-covered figures. Perhaps this reflects individuality, exploration and recognition of current events in society, as it seems to interpret the theme by suggesting the hooded figures are looking to the drapes and car for protection as they are possibly ghosts, who are afraid of the life after death, and long for safekeeping.
By Alessia De Silva
http://austriantimes.at/news/Panorama/2011-08-06/35422/The_grim_seeker_after_truth
http://kielnhofer.com
I am painting my studio floor so my lovely outdoor studio is out of commission until the paint dries. What Framer Dude and I had anticipated to be a 36 hour project looks like it may be turning into a nightmare, and I am facing the next week possibly painting at my dining room table where the light sucks. I have a commission on my easel mocking me next to its ersatz place next to the TV.
Home improvements rarely ever go as scheduled. What should have been an easy DIY task has already led me to an aggravated call to Valspar, the possibility now of grinding up the two coats of Porch and Floor paint we've applied, and another several days painting in the dining room, and eating over the sink (well, in front of the TV)
Grumpy, grumpy, grumpy. So what's y'all's beefs today?
Keith caught my eye with his gently evocative scenes of places he has visited which hold a special place in his heart. From his home state of Utah, to sunny Italy, his scenes reflect a quiet spirituality, even the bears he photographed himself at Yellowstone:
This trail winding through the woods of Utah really intrigues me and I would love to follow it. It reminds me of the Long Island I used to know, peaceful and unspoiled (without the mountains though!)
Keith has been one of the troopers here through this spate of unusually cold weather we've had here (30-40 degrees under the tent), on site painting at the Expo quietly working away on several new pieces armed with coat, mittens, and hot chocolate. I think we should get like, Purple Paintbrushes or something.
See Keith's work at www.keithdabbfinearts.com
I think it’s fair to call Lauren Queen of the Sky. She captures the sweeping, dramatic desert sunsets here in the Southwest in vibrant impressionistic strokes; I am psyched to see that someone else has noticed that at a certain time during some twilight skies there is a green streak:
When you stand up close and look at Lauren’s work, her brushwork is loose; step back about ten feet, and these large canvases turn into crystal clear scenes. I was reminded of Chuck Close.
I have the privilege of seeing her start and complete a commissioned piece, from sketch to underpainting to final layers. Once again, I am reminded of my own goal: learn to paint faster. I am learning much by watching my peeps!
Visit Lauren’s site at http://laurenknode.com
Lori, an oil painter like myself, lives here in the Phoenix area, and the first work of hers to catch my eye was one of Kaibab Path at the Grand Canyon, a dramatic scene of this winding path that descends to the floor of the canyon. This really captures the claustrophobia of a narrow mountain pass contrasted against the vertigo of a sheer canyon drop:
And because the glare was so bad, here's a detail:
I also really liked her handling of the architecture and the light shining through in this piece,
The first thought that struck my mind was that her scenes remind me of the Mediterranean, with her use of color and play of light; as it turns out, there is no need to go abroad to capture beautiful light: many of her scenes are of California and the Southwest, and her scenes are well known to locals. Her work feels warm and inviting, like a Southern California summer day.
See more of Lori’s work at www.lorimyers.com.
Hi everyone!
Please bear with me as it has been 40years since high school English and college English!!
I just had a wonderful week end visit with my Mom up in Augusta, Wisconsin! Had to bring up some of Grandmothers' things for my Mom to go over, plus a few things of my Sisters', a bit of a sad thing to do, but necessary. Anyway in spite of that, we had a really good time and visit! The reason I am writing this about Augusta, I don't know if people know of the large Amish Community they have up there? They do the most amazing quilts, wood work, furniture and the bake goods are just to die for!!!! The most beautiful breads!!!!
The Wood Shed in Augusta on Main Street, sells quite a bit of their furniture, their toys and such, but did you know that you can take a bus tour of the Amish Community? This is really something to see, you are riding along in your truck, car on the back roads, right along horse and buggy on the road! I know that there are some artists that specialize in Amish Artwork, this small area of Wisconsin would be a good place for this type of artwork. Make sure to ask permission first if it is all right to paint on their property and such. But never the less even if you just take a ride by yourself, the country side up there is beautiful! My Mom and I took a ride in her 1 ton truck up and down the hills on the back roads, it was bright and suuny, just a perfect day for a Sunday ride in the country. There is also a pretty good size art community up in the Augusta area, Roz Henning and her group, put on The Falling Leaves Art Tour every Fall, I think it is in October, this is a Saturday and Sunday ride in the country of the small towns, going thru the local artists art studios, to see what the do, talk with the artists and buy some lovely local artwork! Plus the local resturants offer wonderful meals and such when you are done with the tour! Beautiful art and wonderful food in Gods' Country! Again it's a pretty good ride to get to Augusta, it's outside of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, you can do mapquest to get driving directions.
