Good weather at Glenview

The Glenview art fair went well! Both days had good weather - cloudy with no rain the first day, completely clear but not too hot the second day. The setup of the Trimline and mesh panels was time consuming, but the finished look is a great improvement. Print and notecard sales were good, and I saw a lot of repeat customers.

Next weekend, Evanston Lake Shore. . . I'm hearing reports of 90s predicted ( am I paranoid about weather, or what?) but of course, nothing I can do about it now, or then, for that matter.

I've been on the wait list for the Deer Path show, and they won't give me any clue about my position on the list. There's not much chance I'm going to be in that show, but there may be an alternative. More on that later.

Mesh Panels, Galleries, Weather

The mesh panels are here. Tomorrow is setup at Glenview. I'm optimistic that we can assemble the Trimline and panels easily with far less shlepping than before. The weather forecast for this weekend is excellent!
I met with the owners of the Woodland Gallery in Long Grove today. We plan to show some of my work, most likely prints, later this year.

Time for an upgrade

The heavy lifter has decided that we must find an alternative to the 2' x 6' grid panels we've been using to display my paintings. Since I have upgraded my booth from the rain-catching EZ-Up to the dome-topped Trimline, the grids don't attach as well to the interior, and on top of that, they look haphazard and weigh a ton. Today I ordered the Mesh Panels from Flourish Co. These panels attach to the booth interior and provide a neat and orderly background for my art. Their website is: http://www.flourish.com/. Best of all, they're lightweight and portable. Anything to make set-up and take down easier.

Here is a picture of the Mesh Panels. That's not my artwork in the picture!

Being Judgmental

Today I was an awards judge for the Lincolnshire Art Festival, along with two other artist/judges. We were to grade all exhibitors, 180 of them, based upon several criteria. After all of us were done, we met to total the points, and awards were to be given to the highest scores in 6 categories. The weather was hot and sunny, and the judging process took me close to 5 hours to complete. I talked to most of the artists, many of whom I knew from shows that we had been in together, and though it was time consuming, it helped me to learn much more about their work.

Here's what I learned in the process:

• The quality of the art in this show was superb.


• The photography was the hardest to judge, as I know very little about the process, but I was greatly impressed by the artistry and technical skills required to be a good photographer.


• Most of the artists are so devoted to their work that they cannot be doing anything else.


• My favorites were the creations that were previously unknown to me.


• It doesn't hurt a bit to talk up the judges, it's like making a sale. I must learn to do this when I am being judged as well.


• My booth display could use some more curb appeal. This entry formerly contained the word "pizzazz", which needed to be changed. I just changed it.

Drawing in the garden

Our meeting of the Reed Turner Botanical Artists group was Saturday. We sat in a beautiful wildflower garden on the property of Ms. Reed Turner. Butterflies and dragonflies were as abundant as the sunshine. Until then, I had always taken a cutting of the plant I wanted to paint, set it up at my desk, and hurried to sketch it before it changed. When drawing from nature, it was hard not to be distracted by, well, all of the natural distractions. All in all, it was a good first experience.

We also discussed the possibility of having a pre-holiday sale of our work at the nature center. I'm all for it, as that may be my only chance of displaying any work in the off-season. We will need publicity to draw potential buyers of nature artwork to the center. We'll continue to discuss this, I hope.

Link to Reed Turner Woodland website:
Long Grove Park District: Reed Turner