SOLD - "Living on the Edge" - 14 x 18"

As promised, I'll be posting some of my latest works that hadn't yet made it to my blog. Here's one of them, titled "Living on the Edge".

SOLD 

I started this painting last summer; it was the piece I was working on during a local Art Show, and had really struggled to finish it that weekend. I love going to this show... it's outdoors, and you get to meet your collectors face-to-face, which is always great! Plus, we usually set up our easels and paint while folks are admiring and shopping... something I always find interesting myself when I go to shows. I love seeing how each artist works.

However for me, being the social butterfly that I am, I almost never get to paint during these events because I'm too busy talking to everyone! And this is one of those paintings... started, but never finished. I finally brought it back to my studio and managed to finish it months later. And I'm so pleased with the final result!

The original photo (taken by my husband during a past trip to Tijuana, Mexico) was very dull and lifeless. I love bringing my sense of color to such drab scenes. That's where us artists really get to be artists :)

Rendez-Vous des Artistes 2009

For the past 6 years, a huge Art Show takes place in my hometown of St-Leonard, NB (Canada), called the "Rendez-Vous des Artistes". Since I've only recently moved back to the area, this was only my 2nd year participating in it. It's a huge outdoor art show/fair that brings together about 150 artists from all over Canada, United States, and even Belgium! What an amazing weekend it was!!!



The weather couldn't have been more perfect!! They had been predicting rain all weekend - and although it *did* rain, it was always in the evening once all the artists had packed up for the day. Call it luck, but I prefer to think that someone was watching over us!

The place was bustling with people of all ages, so many of them walking away with a few purchases. It was great to see so many people buying original art! So much for a down economy... I swear, the worse the economy gets, the more people tend to save whatever they have left to buy some artwork. It sure beats spending it on a pair of shoes... at least art doesn't go out of style :)

I was also one of those lucky artists who sold original pieces! In addition to lots of Giclee reproductions and greeting cards, I also sold 2 paintings: "Summer Drinks", a watercolor that won me 3rd place a few years back at a show, and "The Cherry Gang", one of my recent oils, favored by many! It's always exciting to sell an original piece, but when I get back home and hang what's remaining back on my walls, I can't help but feel a sense of loss... I get very attached to my work, as I'm sure most artists do!

Looking forward to next year's event already! :)

Autumn Shadows - 10 x 14"

Fall in New England is something else... there's no way to really describe it unless you've been there. Having lived in the northeast my entire life, we sometimes take this for granted. One day, as I was driving through some backcountry roads, I came across this scene - tall, colorful trees casting these long purple shadows in the road... it was so beautiful!!! I had to capture this in a painting. The photos here don't do it quite justice... the painting is much brighter in real life!

This painting can be purchased through my Etsy shop.

Instructions on how to build your own outdoor art display panels

This past summer, I participated in my very first outdoor art show. Having scoured the web to find out how people set up their displays, I was a bit disappointed to see that there wasn't much information out there. So I more or less had to invent something (with the help of my wonderful husband, of course...). And hoping that it would come in handy for other artists, I took detailed pictures along the way, which brings me to this blog post!

I'll do my best to give clear instructions, but if you have any questions, feel free to use the Comments section! :)

MATERIALS NEEDED:

* A tent or canopy, preferably with walls, in case of inclement weather

* 2 x 4's for the basic construction

* Roll of "wire mesh" that I bought at the hardware store

* Large piece of stretchy black fabric (which you can buy at most "box stores")

* Plastic Washers (found in the Nails dept. of your hardware store)

* Curtain Hooks (Curtain dept. of any store)

* Wood screws (long ones for building your walls; small ones to attach the wire mesh to the walls)

* Hinges (I used 4 - two for the tops, 2 for the bottoms)

DIRECTIONS:

First off, set up your tent! If your tent or canopy doesn't already come with walls, you can easily make your own by using a tarp or other whether-resistant material, then using "zip ties" to secure them to the leg posts.

Place your 2 x 4's on the ground, lay them out as needed to create the 2 legs, the top and bottom. Measure and cut your 2 x 4's to the sizes needed for your setup.

Pre-drill all your holes for the basic wall construction, then secure using long wood screws.

Using a pencil or marker, add letters and lines on the 2 x 4's where each of the pieces "meet up". (A -- A, B -- B, etc...). This way, you'll always know which pieces go together, and your holes will always line up whenever you need to take it apart and rebuild for the next show.

Unroll the wire mesh on top of your wall construction, and cut it to size using wire cutters (make sure to wear gloves - this part can be dangerous!)

Attach the wire mesh to the top and sides of the 2 x 4's using small screws and those plastic "discs" (the discs make it more secure and more likely for the wire mesh to stay in place). There's no need to add these to the bottom... you can, but it's extra work for nothing :)

Paint the bottom part of the legs, since this is the only area a person would see after the fabric covers the rest.

When all three legs are done, you can attach the hinges to the tops and bottoms to connect them all together.

Once your three walls are up, wrap the fabric around the mesh, fold and staple it to the backside, making sure everything looks nice and tidy.

I found that the three walls stand up nicely on their own, but I added extra security by zip-tying the 2 outside walls to the top edge of the canopy posts.

Now that you're all done, use the curtain hooks to hang your paintings (one end is sharp, so it goes right through the fabric and hangs on the wire mesh). Use the "U" side of the hook to hang your artwork!

When disassembling my walls, I simply remove the hinges from the two outside walls, unscrew the mesh from the TOP of the wall's structure (leaving it connected to the side legs) then remove the top and bottom 2 x 4's. This way, all I need to do is roll up the two side legs with the mesh attached, which makes everything easier to store and handle.

I hope this proves useful for artists out there. I'm sure there are other ideas out there, but this one happened to work very well for me, not to mention how easy it is for me to assemble and disassemble - without needing much help!

If you find this helpful at all, please leave me a comment! And if you have thoughts on how it can be improved, send your suggestions! :)