Piccolo Spoleto Outdoor Art Show First Weekend

As the first weekend progressed, the weather stayed sunny and gorgeous and here are a few more friends, ribbons and adventures! Below is Beth Keener, a really good friend from Cumming, Georgia, whose husband kindly sent her to Charleston to help me get up and running for the first weekend. She's standing by a 22" x 30" original watercolor that I painted at a conference she spoke at in Georgia last year. Beth has made friends with everyone she's met in the park this year - people just tend to gravitate toward her, even when she blows the shofar! She bought a shofar in Jerusalem when we were on tour there in 2006, and she's been calling in the art lovers since yesterday morning...



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Below is my friend, Dixie Dugan with her 2nd Place Award-winning piece! Dixie and another artist, Sudie Daves, both from Myrtle Beach, were my first overnight guests after I bought my house in Mt. Pleasant 10 years ago.


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And here's another friend, Tim Greaves, standing alongside his award winning oil. Tim, in addition to being a fine artist, also happens to be an attorney in Greenville. His wife and daughters move to the beach each year and run his booth while Tim practices law during the week and commutes to paint and sell on the weekends.


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Below we have Rick Dean and friends with Rick's magnificent award-winning photograph! Rick is gearing up to take a safari with friends and family to Tanzania where they will help support a school. Check it out here.

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Dr. George Cooper, Bicyclist Extraordinaire

Here is one of my favorite people, Dr. George Cooper, who sped over with his Italian racing cap and red bicycle (shown above) just to peruse my art, and perhaps to assure himself that I am "staying the course" regarding contemporary realism in my art. Earlier in my career, I had painted small (very small) lowcountry flower women studies, and which, regarding such, George has actually referred to as "aliens," which is George's word for any art that deviates from his personal definition of "realistic." George is one of those South of Broad eclectic art collectors whose lovely home boasts not only fine and expensive original artwork including 18th century portraits of long dead ancestors and their families, but also such culturally important paintings as "I saw Elvis at The Playboy Club" complete with one of the artist's signature frames that include "objects" such as ground out (real) cigarette butts and Avon Men's Cologne bottles tied to it. And, being the fine corporate citizen he is, George generously shares the more valuable in his artwork collection with the community, i.e., "I saw Elvis at The Playboy Club" is currently on loan to the Veterans Administration Hospital.

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Saturday's highlight at the Piccolo Children's Festival at Marion Square is the Seed and Feed Marching Abominable Band seen here. You've just not lived until you've SEEN this band, much less heard them! Here you see my good friends Doreen and Jerry Larimer standing outside my booth as the musicians entertain us! And this is Beth Keener, playing the role of pink tourist with the camera.



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Last but not least for this post is Carol Gardner as she gives her art demonstration today at the Art Show - collage is a favorite of mine, so I enjoyed it with all the others that came. Carol calls her 5" x 7" canvas collages her "Little Jewel Series" and they really are little jewels - we were all fascinated with the introduction to her process and then watching the creation of the artwork itself. Carol has the gift of teaching (not just us, but she teaches art at a local high school). She joined our art gallery, Courtyard Art Gallery, last July and it's been such a pleasure to get to know her better!