Affordable Art Fair

Bright Trees, 2008, Oil on Birch Panel, 40x60

This week, I am busy gathering work that will be going to the Affordable Art Fair in NYC. At least eight of my paintings will be taken to the show by my New York dealer, Betty Feinman (who was the owner of my NY gallery that closed last year), and can be seen in Booth H-108 with Behr-Thyssen Ltd. Betty has always been incredibly supportive of me and my work and so I am extremely pleased that she will continue to represent me. She showed my work at the AAF two years ago and sold everything I gave her (I wrote about that here) and even though the art market is all screwy right now, I am hopeful that good things will happen there again.

The AAF is May 7-10 and I am considering going down to the city so I can visit the art fair. Will have to think about the expense of that though, as well as whether I would be jinxing things for myself by showing up there. Heh.

Bright Trees, shown above, is one of the group of paintings that will be on display. It has been hanging in my living room for the last 6 months ago and I admit to being a bit attached to it. But it's a nice painting and I will also be very happy if someone were to buy it and enjoy it as much as we do. (one of the things I love about being an artist!)

Recovering

Two Plus Two, 2008, Oil, 8x10

Well, I just barely survived the weekend. I do have a sunburn and six black fly bites on my right upper arm which are driving me crazy, they itch so bad. But the girls finished their triathlon, and my older daughter who had finished her race, went back and ran across the finish line with our youngest, the same little girl that she usually delights in tormenting. I admit to more than a few tears when I saw that. Sisters, you know? And Doug and I enjoyed a lovely dinner out with another couple on Saturday night. We know them casually, but this was the first time that we all had a chance to really sit down and talk and it was great fun to find all that we have in common.

I delivered my paintings to the gallery for the Affordable Art Fair on Sunday. The moment I drove into Hudson it began to rain and by the time I parked illegally in front of the gallery the rain was torrential. I dropped my umbrella which then blew across the street so between chasing that down and then running into the gallery twice with paintings I got completely soaked. I had to ask Melissa for a towel to dry off with. Sometimes keeping one's dignity is just not possible... And to top it all off, not four minutes after I left, the rain had stopped and there was a bit of sun showing. Typical.

I am going to take a week off from painting, even though I really shouldn't as I still have a few things to do plus a small solo show in mid-July to prepare for. But I have to finish painting the walls in my studio by Wednesday and then I really have to get the walkways covered in the vegetable garden before the weeds eat our plants. We didn't get that finished over the weekend and it still needs to be done.

I will start a new batch of paintings this Friday though and get back to some kind of schedule.

Probably. Maybe.

Weekend Madness

Between the Poles, 2008, Oil on Panel, 16x20

Today I am finishing up a new batch of paintings that will be on display at the Affordable Art Fair in NYC next weekend. I am excited to have my work there again, as last year's AAF was pretty successful for me and well, I still owe some money on my new attic so I admit that a few sales right now would be really great. I may have jinxed the whole thing by saying that out loud but there you go.

Last year my work was shown by Multiple Impressions, however, since they are closing (sob) I will be with Carrie Haddad at booth A-303, just in case anybody out there will attending the show. I was hoping to go but Doug will be out of town and things are too hectic around here for me to leave for a day or two, so my work will be there without me.

Speaking of hectic, this weekend isn't even officially here yet and my head is spinning with all that is going on. A soccer game tonight, my son is leaving for a Boy Scout camp out, a dinner for my daughters who have working on a triathlon, for which I have to bake a rhubarb cake this morning. The triathlon on Saturday morning, an end of the school year party for my older daughter, dinner with friends, and then on Sunday I have to drive down to Hudson (for the third weekend in a row-oh the fuel!) to deliver the paintings. I also have to stop at the paint store and finally decide on which color/colors to paint my studio, which has to be finished before the floor guy comes on Wednesday to sand the floors. I am only about halfway finished priming the walls and so have much more to do up there.

Oh and we have to finish up the vegetable garden. Everything is planted finally, but we want to cover and mulch the walkways so that the weeds don't overtake us all (more on the garden next week).

But I am thankful for the rain we finally had last night. At least I won't have to spend an hour each day for the next few days, hand watering the garden.

What I Learned This Weekend

City Street at Dusk, 2006, Oil on Panel

Ok. These are things I have learned since last Friday.

1. Always make a back up plan when planning to travel. Especially when traveling from upstate NY anytime between October and April. Kids at home on a snow day can really mess things up!

2. I am more ambitious than I thought. I stopped in to visit with my gallery in Hudson (on the way to the train station) and we were talking about their experiences at the art fairs. The Affordable Art Fair came up (they are going this year) and I took the opportunity to brag mention that I did really well there last year. She added me to the roster and it looks like I am going!

3. I may be losing my mind. At the train station I spent about four minutes reading a newspaper while waiting for the train, during which time I evidently set down my bifocals on the bench. By the time I realized that I didn't have them, I was on the train and it was moving. The thing is I don't remember actually putting them down, usually I slip them into my bag if I take them off.

4. I really need those glasses, especially while at Penn Station. I was to meet Doug by the board, but somehow I ended up on different level, next to the LIE board. We talked on our cell phones to each until he saw me. I couldn't see him until he was right in front of me.

5. After looking at the above painting, which has been tucked away at Doug's store, I realized that I should do some more city scene paintings. I enjoyed doing them a few years back, before the landscapes and barns entirely took over my life.

6. Ed Winkleman is very nice. Doug and I headed to the Pulse show first thing and went to say hi to Ed before the "show daze" set in, which can make conversation nearly impossible. I chatted with Ed about blogs, art and he gave me some very helpful advice about pursuing new gallery representation. Oh and we especially liked the black licorice pipe, although I was nervous that I would bump into it and knock the whole thing off the pedestal.

7. Not having my glasses at an art fair is actually a good thing. Not being able to see clearly from a distance allowed for a lot of filtering and I was thankful for that, especially after the first half hour.

8. There is not a chance in hell that my current work would EVER be shown at Pulse. I am ok with that.

9. I MAY have a shot at someday showing at the Red Dot Art Fair. There were a few galleries there that I thought might be the place for me. And in fact, I even did that thing you're not supposed to do-I told one exhibitor that I was a painter and that I wanted to give them my info. I couldn't help it, the words just flew out of my mouth before I could stop them. Anyway, he was very nice about it and suggested I email him this week. He very smartly did not take my name. Heh.

10. It is very disconcerting to see expensive, fine art in mediocre hotel rooms and bathrooms. I am used to seeing the other kind of art in hotel rooms (the last hotel room I stayed in actually had two copies of the same print on the wall). But it was less tiring than going through booths in the larger show environments.

11. The Armory Show is very popular! I had no idea. It's like I have been living under a rock or something. The line was probably a mile long outside and it was packed inside. We walked the entire show, although after awhile everything looked the same and I didn't see much that I could connect to. There were a few things I did like, however I didn't have the energy to take any photos and was in such a daze that I can't remember anything now anyway. Sorry.

12. And why, for the love of god, did no one tell me that if one plans to walk through three art fairs they should train as if they were going to participate in a marathon? My feet still hurt today, even though I wore my most comfortable shoes, (which are coincidentally my most unfashionable shoes). And the shin splints! Bah!

13. My 51 year old husband is in better shape than I. After the Armory Show, I went back to the hotel and took a nap. He went to see one more show, The Dark Fair. He said it wasn't as good as he thought it would be.

14. Eating an amazing, candlelit dinner at 11pm, surrounded by beautiful, fashionable, and seemingly very happy people at a crowded restaurant in Soho, makes life seem totally fabulous.

15. All of this activity can have the same effect as an evening of a weekend drinking binge. Instead of leaving the city by 9am, as planned, it was more like 11:30 before we got it together and bedtime on Sunday night was very early.

16. And some kind citizen was kind enough to turn in my glasses to the Amtrak office at the train station. I picked them up on the way home on Sunday.

17. I think that looking at art in this context is not for me. At dinner on Saturday night, Doug tried to discuss what we had seen and all I could do was look at him blankly. We did find that we had very different opinions about the shows though. He didn't like Pulse; I thought it was ok. He didn't like Red Dot; I liked it more, mostly because there were so many paintings, which is more my thing. He was totally into The Armory and I couldn't think clearly after about ten minutes there.

But it was a great weekend. I did retain a few memories of art that I liked, most notably paintings by Ben Aronson. I got to spend a few days alone with my honey and I got to feel like a city girl, however briefly.

PS. If you want a good rundown on the art fairs, go look at these blogs over the next few days. They are clearly much better at writing about art and art fairs than I.

Art Vent
C-Monster
Art Fag City
Two Coats of Paint
Joanne Mattera
Edward Winkleman

These bloggers did a panel discussion on Sunday morning at the Red Dot Art Fair, that I forgot about in our hungover haze.

More Sales

On the Way to Provincetown, 2007, Oil on Panel, 18x24

Thanks everyone, for all of the lovely words of encouragement regarding my recent cluster of sales in NYC. At an art fair no less! I am still a bit loopy about it all. Of course I am aware of the recent trend in art fairs but none of the galleries I have shown with until now, participate in them, so this seems like a good step up for me. And after thinking about it a bit, I am glad I didn't know ahead of time that my work would be there. I would have gotten all stressed about it. Also I would have secretly hoped for much success there which surely would have jinxed it. This way I didn't have a chance to mess it up. Of course the director did say she would include me next year, so I do have a full year now to work myself into a frenzy. Heh.

Anyway, when it rains it pours. I picked up my work from the show at Enderlin Gallery yesterday and also received a check for three of the five pieces that sold. And today's mail bought me a check from the Harrison Gallery for three more sold pieces. I must add here that there should be a place in heaven for gallery directors who pay their artists within days of the sale, as nearly all of mine regularly do.

So this has been a very good month income wise, but believe you me, I have learned from experience to hang on to whatever I can, as next month could just as easily bring me exactly zero dollars.

Very Cool News

Purple Edge, 2007, Oil on Panel, 18x24

I got a call today from the owner of my NYC Gallery and she had some very exciting news for me. I had sent two 36x48 paintings down to her via Doug last week to add to the several pieces that they already have of mine. He said the large ones looked great in the gallery space and so I confess to fantasizing a bit about how cool it would be if one or the other sold right away. Little did I know!

At the last minute, the gallery decided to include my work in their booth at the Affordable Art Fair. My paintings were given a prominent spot I guess, and received some good attention. Hearing that feedback would have made my day, but it gets better. The gallery sold every single one of my paintings! Holy cow!

I was incredibly full of myself for about an hour, until I realized that I had to clean the really icky kid's bathroom and prepare for my daughter's sleep over, which is still in full swing (they are semi quiet, watching a movie). So daily life saved everyone around me from my attitude. Heh.

I still have a little buzz though.