Art West Art Fest - Interesting Finish

My experience as a participating artist in the Out West Art Fest had a great first two days and a very interesting third day. Saturday, day two, was another beautiful day as the predicted rain was moved to Saturday night as opposed to arriving in the afternoon. There were great crowds and I had another profitable day selling some giclee prints and notecards. As the day progressed the artists became ever more diligent about keeping tabs on the weather reports. To be on the safe side most of the artists decided to take their art home for the night. My tent partner and I both decided to take all of our art home for the night. We added extra weights to the tent with concrete blocks and 25 pound barbell weights. We were in a short row of three tents across from the food tents. As an extra precaution we tied the three tents together. We all left for home hoping the storms would pass us by.

I woke up to rain Sunday morning and it wasn't long before the phone rang. A friend who was also participating in the art fair and lived close to the location had driven up to check her tent after the night of storms. She called to let me know that our tent top had been peeled back by the wind and the interior was soaked. According to the news reports later in the day a microburst hit Cave Creek. We actually fared better than many of the artists. There was substantial damage to many of the tents as you can see from the pictures above. Our tent nor panels were damaged......just totally soaked by the 3/4 inch of rain that fell in the area. We could not hang our art on the wet panels as it would destroy our artwork.....so like a good number of the other artists we packed up our tent and panels and gave it up. I did not get a picture of our tent as my partner and several helpful people already had the tent disassembled by the time I arrived.

Oh well.....the first two days were great! I guess this is what you have to be ready for in the art fair business!

Out West Art Fest - Day One

It was a very exhausting setup last night....neither my tent partner, Julia, nor I had a clue how to put up our tent. Julia got it used (no directions) and had set it up once...four years ago. Her memory is no better than mine. Let's just say we did, undid, redid a few times and ran around asking people questions. We did get the tent up and the propanels in place before it got too dark.....barely. Quite an orientation to art festival life! I dragged myself to my car and drove home thinking this may not be my cup of tea!

We got there early today and hung our paintings and made the final setup arrangements. Sunshine and lots of people.....this is more like it.....maybe this is my cup of tea. Then in the first hour I sold a painting, "Golden Barrel Cactus". Yeah....I think I do like it! Then I sold a second painting, "Sunflowers", and some cards. Yep!!! This is pretty great!! Funny how a couple of sales makes you forget all about the pain of the setup!

Now for the next challenge.....we are supposed to get some fairly significant storms with winds, rain and possible hail tomorrow night. Needless to say all exhibitors are on edge. We are going to take all our art out of the tent tomorrow at the end of the day (hopefully not in rain) and pray the tent is still there when we arrive Sunday morning. Cross your fingers for us.

I will let you know!

Out West Art Fest

This weekend I will be showing in the Out West Art Fest at the Stagecoach Village in Cave Creek, AZ. This will be my first outdoor art festival. For this first venture I will be sharing a tent with my good friend and fellow pastelist, Julia Patterson. Above is the flyer with the location, dates and times. If you are in the area please stop by and see us!

Show Results

As reported in previous blogs, I recently had pieces juried into both the Glendale Arts Council 2010 Show and the Arizona Pastel Artists Association Winter Juried Show. I received awards in each of the shows. The piece "Greens and Purples" won second place in the Glendale Arts Council Show and the piece "Boot Scootin' Wannabes" won honorable mention in the APAA Winter Juried Show. I was very pleased to receive recognition in both shows!

Cold in Arizona???

This week the Arizona Pastel Artists Association is hosting a plein air painting workshop with Maggie Price. Maggie is an highly accomplished artist with a strong reputation as a teacher. She teaches workshops across the US as well as in Europe. As a resident of NM just outside of Albuquerque, Maggie was looking forward to some warmth and sun in Arizona in the middle of winter as much as we were looking forward to learning from her. Well, our "el nino" winter is not cooperating. We are definitely not showing our best side to the folks that have come from out of state to participate! We are having below normal temperatures.....low to mid 60s, cloudy weather at least part of each day so far....and rain predicted tomorrow. But, we are taking it in stride.....the warm friendship and laughter among the participants as we brave the elements has overcome our disappointment in the weather. And most importantly....we are learning a lot!!!