Reston, Virginia and Washington, DC

Last weekend I exhibited my oil pastels at the Northern Virginia Fine Art Festival in Reston, VA.  Originally we were going to combine it with another small Chicago suburb show but decided to eliminate a little of the chaos of our summer schedule by dropping that show.  Still, because our nation's capitol is a mere 1800 plus miles from Angel Fire, we tried something new.  Rees set out and drove and I flew.  I thought it would be a wonderful way to save time and provide me with some extra studio time and energy.  And, it sort of worked.  I'm getting pieces done, working on the commissions I have lined up, keeping up with the house.  But, the energy that went into flying, including a 150 plus mile drive to the airport, a night in an Albuquerque hotel, delayed planes in Denver on the way home....meaning I wasn't able to pick up JuneBug until this morning..all that was a little much.  Plus it definitely added onto the baseline expense of doing that show.  So, I don't think that is how I'll do it again.  And, because of  the distance, I don't think it is a show I should do every year.  Still my sales were pretty good and the show was easy to do--good parking, good crowds.

But, since I left my camera connection in Rees' computer bag, I don't have any images to upload.  So I'll go into further detail on the show in a later post.

I did get to visit with my friend, David Bos.  And he was kind enough to wander parts of DC so I could get a pretty good museum fix.  We went to the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery of Art, where I absolutely fell in love with a Vermeer in the Dutch and Flemish Cabinet Galleries. Which one?  I think the Lady with the Red Hat..although online it doesn't have the luminescence that the actual painitng had...  We also visited the Chester Dale Collection at the National Gallery and I was very impressed.  Oh, to have ample money to collect paintings the way he and his wife did!  We also saw the Peacock Room at the Freer..I loved the way the collection was displayed.

Washington is a great place for visiting museums.  They are free so you can come and go as you like...spend hours or just hurry through.  My only complaint was that I didn't allocate enough time to see more!  If you haven't been, GO!

Main Street Fort Worth

Me, cousin Jean, & Rees with his eyes closed

The fabulous Jim Brown and his work

Julie Jerman-Melka

Tanya & Jim

Jen & Tanya's booth

Jen, Tanya & Rex

Ft. Worth Main Street happened a while ago.  But, as I was going through my photos I found these.  It was a 4 day, long show.  But, my neighbors made that time go by fast!  I had other good neighbors besides the ones in the photos--I just didn't take pics of everyone!

The show was of really high quality.  And despite some very high wind one day, we actually had pretty good weather.  I was thankful for being under the big top.  The crowds were really strong--almost too big on the weekend.  My sales were strong and for once, I thought my booth looked pretty good.  It was nice to be back.  Thank you, Main Street!

Learn Something New

OMG! Two weeks since last posting.  Egads, I am bad.  This will be a short one.  But, I listened to a webinar put on by Xanadu gallery on photographing art work.  For the most part, I didn't learn a lot.  But, now that I have WIFI in my studio (Yippee!), I could listen to the webinar and frame at the same time.  Jason Horejs, the owner of Xanadu, has produced several very informative webinars: on gallery portfolio submissions (which I've never done but might have to one day, when I decide I can't keep up my frenetic travel pace), shipping art, etc.  This one was done with a panel of experts, along with Jason's own input.  And, while I knew most of what was covered, I learned this one little gem:

When you either have lost, or cannot find, or didn't take in the first place, a high quality photo of a piece of work that is framed behind glass, you can get a decent snapshot (certainly not for publication, etc) of the piece by simply situating the art in the sun, angled back only a few degrees, right at the shadow line from a building or some other straight structure.  I took some snaps of some pieces I had behind glass, sans good photographs to show people, and I think they turned out quite well.  The last 2 I had Rees' help and they worked best.  The first 2 worked ok.  But, it was difficult to practically lie on the ground (think hard core crunch) while balancing the painting between your feet, while keeping yourself and the camera still. I guess I should have had a picture of that, but then I would have just had Rees hold the painting. 

Oklahoma Festival of the Arts

 Me & Maximo Cortino

 Me & Barry Bernstein

 Robin Thompson in her winter parka

My triangular booth

Well, Rees & I made it through the grueling ordeal that was the Oklahoma City Festival of the Arts.  It was my first ever 6 day show.  We experienced all the vagaries of Oklahoma weather in springtime: heat and sun, vicious winds, cold & rain.  Stir those up and you have the art show.  It was really quite an event.  The town really comes out and supports the event.  The food court had the best selection of show food ever! My sales were good, especially on higher priced items. I think it is a place where sales and clients build over time.  I met some good people, saw some great art and am pleased we made it through with dollars in our pockets and enough energy to get us back to Dallas for the next one:  Cottonwood, this weekend.    Thanks for everything, Oklahoma City!!!!!!!!!!!!!