Seasons of Martis Final Day
Today we had to turn in our paintings by 1:30, and then the reception/sale was being held at NorthStar Village between 4-7 pm. I originally was undecided on whether to go out and do another quick painting in the morning, as I had enough time to do one, or just touch up what I had. Well, when I awoke, my bad back made the decision, and I decided to stay close to the room, and touch up the 4 paintings I had done, frame them, and not rush the morning.
I delivered my works around 12:30, and the show looked great. From what I saw, there were some excellent paintings in the exhibit.
I had a few hours to kill so drove around Lake Tahoe for awhile to gather some photo studies. I do quite a few paintings of Lake Tahoe, and am always trying to come up with new ideas. After cleaning up for the reception back at the motel room, it was back to NorthStar.
The Seasons of Martis exhibition was in a special tent at NorthStar. I have included a few pictures below.
Frankly, I didn’t expect a big turnout as it was a late Sunday afternoon when all the weekenders had gone, plus it was the off season for the area and not too many people around to begin with. I was pleasantly surprised that there were quite a few people attending. I met some old artist friends, plus a number of artists I hadn’t met, but had been communicating with as we show in the same gallery, plus others. It is always great to run into fellow artists, and I think events like this help us constructively compare and keep our craft up. After I put my paintings up, and observed others, I immediately fought the urge to pick up my brush and change just something….maybe talk about this for a later blog.
I don’t have inside information, but it seems sales were a little slow in starting, but in the end they picked up, and I think the show did fairly well with brisk sales. I think slowing art sales may be a little indicative of the slowing economy. Ed Terpening who just participated at the San Lus Obispo show reported pretty much the same. I usually sell out at plein air events, but nothing this time. The one and only juried award, best of show, went to Paul Kratter, probably one of the more well known artists exhibiting.
We artists had to stay around until 7:00 to pick up the paintings if they hadn’t sold. About a quarter to seven, one of the artists told me about a closer place I could park my car to load paintings. Well…might as well kill time and move my car closer to make loading easier. So off I went, to move my car. By the time I got back to the exhibit area, many artists were picking up their paintings. What??? There was a ribbon on one of my paintings! They had just counted the tally and I received the “People’s Choice” award. What a surprise!! Below is a bad shot of the painting–
