Pompeii update

Last night was the Pompeii Art Show at the Cincinnati Museum Center, and I promise this is the last time all of you will hear about it.  Maybe.

It was a good show with a a wide variety of artwork: abstract paintings, mosaics, sculpture, a handmade book.  Obviously there are a lot of talented artists in the Cincinnati area.  It was a good experience for me personally too.  Over half the pieces sold, including mine - and for more than my starting bid!  I got quite a few compliments from both my fellow artists and from those who came to see the show.

One of the Museum Center's employees told me how happy she was to have the painting hanging in her office for a few days before the show - her mother was the one who actually won the bid, so I'm sure she will see it many more times in the future.  I also had people tell me that they could tell by the attention to detail that I had been to Pompeii.

A few connections in the Cincinnati art world were made that will hopefully be helpful in the future.  And while my very distant hope of picking up the sponsorship of a wealthy executive from Proctor & Gamble or Johnson & Johnson didn't come true, it is a great feeling to hear praises and see my piece sold.  It  feels like a big step forward.

Here's a link to photos from the show, including one of myself and my wonderfully supportive husband.

A new home

I managed to accomplish a few things this past week - a pastel and two little oils.  But I haven't decided yet if I like the pastel, which is why I didn't post it.  And in this heat and humidity, the oils are drying very slowly, which makes it hard to get any good photos.  We did finally break down and buy a second air conditioning unit, so at least I am not soaked in sweat by the time I am set up to paint.

In other news, the friend who commissioned the two sunflowers posted a photo of them hanging on her wall.   This got me to thinking about how cool would it be to see all my paintings in situ as they say in archaeology.  So I've decided to start an album on my Facebook page of sold paintings hanging in their proper place.  Just send a photo to me, and I'll post it.  Don't worry, I won't include any personal info!

Snowbound and Shaded Lane - SOLD!

Snowbound, 9x12 pastel, copyright 2010

I'm not normally one to put much into New Year's resolutions and wishes, but lately I've been wondering if there's something to them.  This year I talked about ideas for what I would like to see happening in the next 12 months and even wrote a few of them down - "putting it out to the universe" as one friend calls it.   Oddly enough, shortly after I did that things started to happen.  A college friend's parents emailed me to say they wanted to buy Snowbound, and were interested in two other pieces.  Less than a week later, another friend expressed an interest in Hayloft; she's currently saving up for it.  A week after that another friend asked for a commission, my first one.  And then last night I arrived at Life Drawing for the first time in probably six weeks to find that another artist had bought one of my pastels in the Starving Artists show, Shaded Lane.   It seems I am finally expanding beyond family and close friends, which makes me think that after 3 1/2 years of ups and downs since I decided to see if I had what it takes to become a professional artist, I'm finally getting some results.  It's a good feeling.  A very good feeling.

Shaded Lane, 9x12 pastel, copyright 2010