Day 4 - Piccolo Spoleto Outdoor Art Show

Thankfully we had no rain - what a beautiful Memorial Day - sitting in the park under a tree, listening to the concert, seeing old friends, making new ones and gratefully acknowledging those who made the ultimate sacrifice so that we and our children could truly live in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Morning Demo - Carol Gardner - Mixed Media Collage

Here is Carol with her demonstration of collage mixed media, using acrylic paint full strength on the canvas, then creating an abstract design with handmade paper. She then paints a previously painted image in acrylic on gessoed watercolor paper and glues that on to her base. Fascinating - for all of us who love the freedom and fun of working in layers, collage is a great way to go!

Cas and Theresa Caserta

My very good friends, the Casertas from NC, came and spent most of the day with me and treated me to a delicious picnic lunch in the park. We keep in touch during the year but always meet up during Spoleto for a visit. I always look forward to connecting with them this time of the year and sharing what's happened between Spoletos. Another reason why today is special.

So, in closing tonight,

it's all for one and one for all...

Day 3 - Piccolo Spoleto Outdoor Art Show

Rain Day (mostly)

The downfall of rain started last night and was heavy when I woke up so I just went back to sleep. Ran some errands between intermittant rain and went down to Marion Square and opened around 3:30 pm. A good number of artists had opened around 11 a.m. and stayed throughout the day. I put my poles on and they work great - this started because Tim Greaves (an artist right across from me) is also an attorney in Greenville, SC so his wife, Georgia has tent duty all week long and he drives down for the weekend - here they are below:
Since Georgia needed to fold up the sides of the tent by herself, a friend of theirs, Gregg Anderson, attached the poles to Tim's tent, and all it took was for one of us to notice what an easy time Georgia was having with the sides, and I immediately went and told Carol who then went and told Hilarie (see the previous post). Good ideas spread like wildfire through an art show. Thank you for your idea, Gregg:

Gregg and Mary Leslie Anderson standing in front of really fine art...

In spite of the rain, everyone was in relatively good spirits, including Artists Vicki Ellis (also our art show coordinator) and Jane Jackson.

And so, until tomorrow...

Day 2 - Piccolo Spoleto Ourdoor Art Show

PVC Pipe Changes 3 Artists Lives

Yes, it's amazing what pvc means to progress. If you're an artist in an outdoor show, there will be times that you have to roll up the sides of your tent by yourself - this is no easy task, and the level of difficulty rises according to the height of the artist. But pvc has come to the rescue! Hilarie Lambert's husband John bought 12 10" pvc pipes for Hilarie, Carol Gardner and myself at 7am Sat morning and delivered them in his truck to the park for us to attach to the bottom of our tent sides, and now we can roll up our sides in an orderly fashion in record time - the less stress, the happier we are as artists - thank you, John!

Below is a picture of Tyrone, who helps several of us set up and close up during Spoleto, demonstrating with Carol Gardner how neatly the sides will roll up.


And here is Hilarie Lambert, wife of the pole deliverer, with her award-winning "Struttin'":

Georgeous weather, and the early part of the day was filled with friends, customers - the Charleston Farmers Market is open and as always, on the first Saturday, the Seed and Feed Band. Lots of excitement, energy and enthusiasm!

Later, good friends from Charlotte arrived:

Bonnie Chavda, Aaron Chavda and Destiny Decker

and our day of adventure began.... Aaron Chavda is a talented and emerging artist and we went to meet with Rebekah Jacob at her gallery on King Street. Rebekah, with her engaging personality, talent, education and professionalism is one of those people whose lives radiate into all areas of fine art. So, loaded with resources from Rebekah, we set out on our trek to scope out and hopefully connect with the emerging art scene in Charleston, and were fortunate to meet up with Mike Elder of Eye Level Art - you simply cannot be around Mike and what he's doing without getting excited about what's breaking forth in this area with emerging artists and the opportunities to see and experience the new and fresh talent in this area. A high point of our day was getting to check out Mike's new venue at 103 Spring Street!

At the end of the day, we closed my tent and set out for dinner, a celebration between good friends, the gift of adventure and the shared anticipation and gratitude for the good things waiting around the corner!

Seven Feet are Better than One

and
a Guaranty of Going Places

It's PIccolo Spoleto 2009!

One Step at a Time is the secret
to a 16 day outdoor art show...

It's Day 1 of the Piccolo Spoleto Outdoor Art Show 2009 - a beauty of a day, especially after all the rain earlier this week. Now the tent is up! (along with over 100 other artists juried into this show, which, by the way, is one of the largest and the longest outdoor art shows in the southeastern United States.)

The paintings hang, beckoning the buyers, that rare breed of people these days with purchasing power. The first day is awards day, everyone is on best behavior, toenails even get painted - what more could one want?

"Psalm 24: 1-6"

Original Mixed Media Collage

Worship Painting

15" x 22" As Is - $150.00

Double Matted to 22" x 28" - $175.00

Painted last evening at the 6:30 St. Andrews service, another of my "Water and the Word" series. I had a vision of above and the scripture which came to mind was "The earth is the Lord's..." which is the beginning of Psalm 24 as I know it in the New International Version. Looking the passage up in The Message, I really liked the language and decided to use that translation as the background. With all the uncertainty in the world today, I find that I need to be reminded of the truth of God's sovereignty.

"Santa Fe Song"

3" x 5"

Mixed Media Collage
Matted in Black to 8" x 10" - $75.00

I'm ready to go back to Santa Fe!

"Seven Spirits of God III"

Mixed Media
8" x 8"
12" x 12" Framed - $150

A recurring theme I work with from Isaiah 11. Instead of gold paint, I worked on handmade watercolor paper with gold gilt, an Italian red oil paint as the base and PVA glue for the size.