she raced ahead

This past February, when I was at Art Central for 2 weeks with our little group of 3 called "Quite the Spectacle", I used some of the time when customers weren't in the studio to do some painting.  One day when Diane Kinahan was painting there as well (in silence with me since I had laryngitis) I did about 10 wee paintings, all with little words or quotes on them. 

Because sometimes sentences float into my head and I have to put them down somewhere.  That's where the sentence on this painting came from, and I resonate with it so much that I am keeping the original.  It's not big.  Only 4" x 6".  And some may call it "craft" because it's so small and has cut up words on it.  But I don't care.  I love it.  I love the transparent yellow.  I love the white that doesn't quite obliterate every other colour underneath, I love the neon green peaking through. 

And I love the sentiment.  Because I do that.  I race ahead in an effort not to be left behind, and then I see what I've missed from racing ahead.  Silly, I know.  But I still do it.

Scotia Tower - choices

I'm just getting together some paintings for a show June 11 - 15 at the Scotia Tower downtown Calgary. The address is 700 – 2^ndStreet S.W. I was initially asked to bring larger pieces, which is fine, but made me feel a little sad for my smaller pieces. Now that I've seen the layout they're doing, I think a few of my 8in x 8in pieces will fit in nicely with my 18in x 36in pieces. Whew!  Now I just have to decide which ones.

It's June?!

How did it get to be June so soon?  It was just April last time I checked.  What have I been up to?  Let's see....  I was at First Thursday at Art Central in April and managed to sell a few paintings.  Then I was in Minnesota visiting my sister and her family and managed to squeeze in a class for 12 youngsters on abstract painting (that was very fun but very exhausting too!).  Sat through two tornado warnings.  Came back home to find a weird sound in my vehicle's steering wheel - got that fixed.  Then an eye appointment to confirm whether or not the bleed by my optic nerve was worse or healed - (healed!  If you said it in your head like a TV Evangelist, you get two points.)  Had my lawn power raked and some landscaping done - then fought over the cost to haul the debris away (so much fun).  Taught some kids how to make a Mother's Day card.  Went to Nanaimo to look for a place to buy that we can subsequently rent out... looking at a long term solution to our many vacations there.  Got outbid on two places (and got quite pouty about the whole thing).  But stayed at a great place right on the ocean.  Came back to a bevy of appointments and clients and meetings and lunches and drinks with friends.  Got the garden up to snuff and planted my annuals (love love love portulaca).  And finally, just had a Saturday filled with Garage Sale-ing and got 10 easles, 1 brass platter, two sidewalk blocks, and two mid century modern chairs.... all for $3.  I know.  I'm amazing.

And along with all of that I've also managed to paint paint paint and take some photos.  And then add a photo to a painting commission I did.  The client wanted an Alberta storm, so I did that.  But before I put the rest to her painting. I took a good image of it.  And when I wandering around my photos from the summer of 2010, I found this one of the cattle run.  So I added the two together in PhotoShop.  Gotta love PhotoShop.

Bring it on!

I just confirmed with Art Central... not only am I in the Art Loop Gallery for the entire month of March, but I'm also going to be in a studio in the Art Loop (lower level) for the three days surrounding First Thursday in April!  http://www.artcentral.ca/tenants/44-art-loop-gallery.

come & visit
April 4 & 5 & 6
Hours 11ish-4ish, Thursday- noon-ish til 8ish
(First Thursday is a bit of a party-time celebrating the Arts from 6-9pm on April 5th)
Art Central
100 7 Avenue Southwest
Art Loop - one of the studios, wander through & find me!
lower level, by the koi pond

turning 40

I turned 40.  And I had a fabulous time doing it.  And pretty much I've had a fabulous day every day since turning 40.  My 30s had quite a bit of suckiness throughout - I guess every decade does.  But I figure I've had a bit more than my fair share of suckiness.  So my 40s are going to be nothing like my 30s, dammit.

I started off the celebration by having a one woman show (that would be me) at Art Loop at Art Central in Calgary.  It was pretty tough curating my own show, all on my own, but well worth it.  I called the show 40@40 so I had to limit my paintings to only 40 - which was tough.  Given the space constraints, it would have been easier to go with all smaller canvases and pack the walls with them, but I think the limit of just 40 pieces kept the walls nice and clean.

A few days after the show, my friends and I went to Death by Chocolate at the Palliser.  It was a blast.  I think I stayed awake all night due to the amount of chocolate I consumed.  I also received not one but two Coach purses, and not one but two dozen roses, along with another two deliveries of flowers.  My house smells like a greenhouse and I love it!

So here are the 40 paintings, along with the other photos I took on opening night of my show.  Hopefully the podcast a cute couple recorded goes live at some point, and I'll get even more coverage.  Yup, so far the 40s have been fabulous!

common thread?

Recently, I was in a little pop-up shop in Art Central along with two other artists, Diane Kinahan and Darlene Beck.  We originally planned to be there for 3 days, February 1st - 3rd, with February 2nd being the big First Thursday event Art Central always hosts every (you got it!) first Thursday of each month.  We were so successful that day, we ended up staying for an extra two weeks!  Shaw TV even interviewed me for our little group of three - Quite the Spectacle - getting up close and personal with abstract art. 

It was a long haul though, even though I only did 5 'shifts' actually manning the store.  You see, I had laryngitis from a cold I got just days before the opening, and I pushed myself to do the interview, be 'on' for the First Thursday, and muster the energy to get through the rest of the time we were there.  It's not like it was strenuous being there.... if I was well.  But I was not.  So I got really tired.  Eventually we came to the end of our stay, and I've taken the week off from speaking (pretty much whispering really) and have taken to carrying a wee whiteboard around with me to communicate with people. 

Which means I've had a lot of quiet time to sits and thinks.  And what I'm thinking about is... what sold what I sold?  What are the elements that are appealing of the pieces I sold.  The photo above is a set of three wee paintings I did on one of the days in the studio when Diane and I worked together getting messy with paint.  They were hung for Monday morning, and sold in the afternoon.  I think the other ladies and I were thinking larger pieces would sell, as an instructor talked about large art a lot.  But the pieces that sold were all small.  One that Darlene sold was I think about 12 x 16, but it was a realism piece, not abstract (yes, she snuck that in there!)  All the ones I sold were 12 x 12 or 8 x 8 or smaller.

I do think price point was a factor, as other artists and gallery owners said I was priced too low.  But was I?  I mean, pieces sold.  Perhaps if I was higher pieces wouldn't have sold.  I don't know.  I'm really looking for some insight on what it is about pieces I make that sell, and those that stay in inventory for quite some time.  Here's all the pieces that sold during those two weeks.  What do you think?  (oh, and I don't usually do hearts, but it was Valentine's Day and I was encouraged to do them... and they sold.)  I'd really appreciate any insights, as I'm about to do another show at Art Central - for the entire month of March!