Land O Lakes Wisconsin Art Show

This is actually from the Artarama show a week earlier, but my booths tend to look the same. That show was disappointing for me, but I heard that some people had good sales. 

 

It took me forever to set up the show at Land O Lakes. I felt like I barely got set up, went and washed up and did my hair and makeup, returned, had two hours of sales and the sky opened up and the rains came. Now, normally, rain does not deter this crowd, as we have it quite frequently at this show....see last year....

But this year, the threat of serious weather just had us all packing up as fast as we could. As it was, I did get some damaged pieces as the water came in so fast and wicked on the back of them. The next day, at Nancy's we just put the tents up and the curtains and got them dry for Monday's Flea Market, which was not very good, either. 

It's gonna be a tough year, and I am not sure which direction to go at this point. Well, this week I will be up North all week, doing Mercer, Minocqua, Lakewood and then, St. Germain. 

It goes like this: 

August 3, Mercer Loon Days 

August 4, Minocqua Torpey Park 

August 6, Lakewood 

August 8, St. Germain

St. Germain Independence Day

Well, it was an absolutely beautiful weekend. The night before this show, I watched St. Germain's  fireworks from my RV while lying on the bed. It was an awesome display, and I haven't seen live fireworks for 20 years.
Sales were disappointing, and I don't know what to say about that. Things seem a little depressed this year, yet. I thought this would be the weekend to kick it all off. I feel like I did get a good response on the new things I have been painting, and so, I am thinking that I am going in the right direction.
I have a new button to "Like" me on facebook, so be sure you use it, it will let me know you are keeping up with me. Thanks.

Getting Ready for July 4th weekend

I have noticed that I have slowly been braver and adding more details. There is constant thinking about this and how I can make a story from various images combined in one piece. It reminds me of cooking sometimes. I made meatballs tonite for supper, but was perplexed about how to serve them. I didn't want the traditional "spagetti and meatballs", and finally decided on making them like appetizer meatballs. The recipe with grape jelly. Looking it up, I found that the other "secret" ingredient was chili sauce. Hmmm....I just googled substitute for chili sauce and it gave me a recipe to make my own, as I didn't have any on hand. Then, the chili sauce called for cinnamon, cloves, and one other ingredient......I didn't have any of those, but I had chinese five spice---pretty close. They turned out awesome, and I discovered that it is much like what I do in the studio. Grabbing things and putting them in the "pot" and seeing what it becomes.

This one I decided to actually do a little minnie painting, but because it was so little and detailed, I actually drew it out first in india ink and then painted the rest afterwards. I zoomed in on the painting so you could see.

I love everything about this one. I am getting more familiar with what works, and more relaxed about it. Another little drawing/painting, and I am learning to let some things just interpret themselves. I had planned on painting in the lake, but realized that it says it all without doing the. I like the layered textured background. I really enjoyed doing the little sign on the right. I don't know if anyone else feels this way, but everytime I see those signs on the roadside, I get happy. There is so little left of the days when I stayed in those little rented housekeeping cabins. They are slowly being replaced by condos. Seriously, why would you want to duplicate the big city life? If you want luxury, don't go for the Northwoods. I am against all this modernizing, it defeats the purpose to me. Keep it simple and fun. A cabin for 7 people should only have 7 plates, 7 forks and 7 spoons. A small fridge, just enough beds and a fishouse on the property. OOOOOOkay, I will stop now...don't get me going.......
These are my latest up to now. Today, I began painting on metal pieces. You shall see them next. Thanks for stopping by, and do leave a comment. Don't be afraid....there are no blogger police in the recesses of the internet waiting to grab all your information.

Working Hard for Art Shows

Plum Lake Public Pier with vintage Girl Swimmer

I was really happy with the results of this picture. I have had the print of the girl swimmer for quite awhile and knew that I would know what to do with it when the time came. 

You will see how my work evolves as I show you the next few paintings. 

The last time I did these collages, people seemed to like this dark background the best. However, I have experimented with other colors and think people will like them also. 

I like to paint the postcard into the picture if I can. It is difficult to write on paintings, so, if I can, I also add pre-lettered verses instead. 

I like the use of vintage maps and I actually found one that listed the resorts and put them on the map where they were. This is helpful in my research when doing these pieces. 

 

This is the map that listed the resorts. I tried to make it a bigger picture so you can see it. I really like working with fishing and canoeing themes, but I have plans to explore other subjects as well. 

I had a lot of fun creating the background for this nice piece. I enjoy using the illustrations of women in these themes.

Well, that's about it for now, but I hope to make a lot more this week. I will post them as I do them. I will be in St. Germain on July 3 and 4. Hope to see you there!!

Fun Collaging

I am so excited to be collaging and painting again. I feel all giggly about it and at the same time nervous. I am nervous because I cannot plan my art as it takes on a life of its own. I have an idea, but it takes things out of my mind and runs with it. I don't have so much time to create, so I don't want things to not turn out. I need them to turn out everytime......silly, I know.

My computer is acting weird, but I suddenly have the ability to make my photos larger.......I have another I can try to post, but so far it isn't letting me.

2011 Art and Craft Show Schedule for Wisconsin

Here is my schedule for the 2011 season. I have left a couple of shows out, and can talk about that in the future. I will be doing as many of the St. Germain Flea Markets as I can, if I am Up North at the time. I can let you know before I go, or email me for specifics of the shows.

I wanted to keep my schedule as small as possible, but I may find that I left out too much information. We will see.
Now I wanted to show you what I worked on yesterday.

 This one I have to look at awhile because something isn't quite right with it yet, to me. But, for the most part I was really happy. I think I have a good momentum and plans to do about five more before the next show.

I really liked this one especially, and so did my husband, who encouraged me to paint a few more with fishing themes. He especially likes the idea of the woods and cabins. I plan to try to replicate a few vintage postcards of area resorts. We will see how that works out. That's it for now. I have a busy weekend. Please let me know what you think. You will feel like you are having to fill out too much stuff to comment, but trust me, it's safe. Thanks. Eydie

A Walk in the Woods Art Show

This is the part of my display that I highlight my Wizard of Oz things. It is amazing how popular these things are. I noticed that in Minocqua there is a store that carries WOZ things, and Lucy, and Snoopy, John Wayne, Audrey Hepburn, Three Stooges, Betty Boop, and a few other classic themed things. I would have bought a Beatles thermos had they still had it, but there were none left. They also carry the Beatles things.

This show turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I am hoping it is a sign of the other art shows to come. I did better than I did last year. I felt that lots of people attended and they were buying. The weather was unbelieveably perfect. This is a fine art show, so no crafts. It is relatively small, around 50 exhibitors, I think. I wonder about doing it, as I do a lot of shows in St. Germain, but this crowd is different.

I had lots of display space as  I had two and I was an island. There was an aisle in front and back, so I just left it open both sides. At this point, I really don't think there are any bad spots. Eventually, it looks like they want to run them through the woods along the trail, but I am not sure any of us want to be in there because of the mosquitos. 

I am off for the next two weeks, but then I will be in St. Germain again the 3rd and 4th of July. Come and see me there!