Sheila M. Evans

This morning I received one of five Benchmark Awards at Art in the High Desert. The award is described as representing excellence in art, booth and display, interactions with the public and with other artists. The award is a huge honor in light of the amazing quality of work at this beautifully juried show. And best of all, I am invited back for next year!

This weekend I am heading to Art in the High Desert. I am very happy to be doing this show. It is only in its second year, but I have already heard wonderful things about the jury and the quality of artwork selected. Also, I know some of the artist-organizers and expect great things. As I think I mentioned here before, I missed the jury deadline for the inaugural year of the show. I had heard the show was coming, but didn’t know what the name of the show would be or its jury deadline, so I missed it when it appeared on the jury submission website. As a result I am particularly thankful to be included this year, especially since it is such a small, high-quality event.

I will be bringing some new artwork, not including Shoji Study, pictured at left. I made Shoji Study last week in anticipation of the next round of shows, and sold it at Arbor Crest last weekend (thanks, Arbor Crest, for a pleasant and profitable show, and thank you to my new collectors). But I am spending the few days I have before I leave for Bend creating a few more red hydrangea pieces, so if you liked Shoji Study, don’t despair.

I hope to see some of you in the High Desert this weekend!

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Art in the High Desert

When: August 28 – 30, 2009

Where: The Shops at the Old Mill, 661 Powerhouse Drive, Bend, OR

Hours: Friday – Saturday, 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m, Sunday, 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

What I’m bringing: Pastels and Oils

Booth #10-11

This Saturday and Sunday, August 22nd and 23rd, Arbor Crest Winery will hold its annual Art and Glass Fest. The show runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. both days. This is a seriously fun event with lots of original art and crafts, live music, food, wine and a beautiful hilltop setting with a spectacular view of the Spokane Valley and the river.

Come see me and some new paintings in pastel and oil, including one of my newest small pastels, Magnolias Study, left.

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Art & Glass Fest at Arbor Crest

When: August 22-23, 2009

Where: Arbor Crest Wine Cellars, 4705 N Fruit Hill Rd, Spokane, WA

Hours: Saturday – Sunday, 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.

What I’m bringing: Pastels and Oils

Where has the summer gone? My friend Amy just reminded me she will start teaching again in two weeks. I am already most of the way through my show schedule. Summer has become my favorite season, but it disappears so quickly—divided among show days, travel days and in-between days. I’m taking advantage of a few of the latter at the moment, gearing up for Arbor Crest,  Bend and Sausalito with some painting. I took my new “daisy” pastels with me to Bellevue a few weeks ago, and was somewhat shocked when I sold out of them. So, my priority for the next weeks is to paint a few more for my remaining shows.

Before getting back to the studio, I had the idea to turn one of my horizontal daisy sketches on its end and make some adjustments to create a new composition. I don’t have a lot of time to paint, and planning my designs can be one of the most time-consuming aspects of the process. So I worked on that for quite a while, and even made a small sketch. I liked it, but in the end it wasn’t quite as inspired as I would have preferred to take to a large size. I tried tweaking the sketch some more, but eventually set it aside and started fresh. And within a very short time, I had worked out my idea for Golden Ascent, left.

This isn’t the first time I’ve chucked an idea and started a new sketch, when I really just wanted to get into the studio and paint. Now that I think about it, some of my favorite and perhaps strongest work has come out of similar situations. I think my tendency when clearing the slate is to go simpler in my designs. While Golden Ascent isn’t simple in every respect, the overall concept of the winged shape is. This is especially intriguing to me at this moment, because on a whim last week I purchased and read the book, “In Pursuit of Elegance” by Matthew May.  I don’t want to give too much away, because it is a fascinating read and I highly recommend it. But in essence it is about editing, leaving out, clearing the mind of the urge to solve problems by adding. My latest pastel drove the point home nicely.

For a few more examples of my favorite simplified designs, go here.

Read more

This upcoming weekend is the Sun Valley art festival and I am so happy to be on my way there. Sun Valley is always a great show for me in so many ways. The collectors are wonderful, the show staff is extremely organized and helpful, and we always see several artist friends. Not to mention KB’s, my favorite burrito place away from home. Their tofu soft taco with miso sauce is amazing. I’m getting hungry already.

This year I’m bringing oil paintings, including Red Skies, left, to SV. I’ve only shown pastels there in the past so I’m excited to be showing a new medium. And, of course, I’ll have plenty of new pastel work too. If you are planning to be at the show and want to see a particular piece of art, please contact me by Tuesday. I may already have the work with me, but if not I just might be able to talk Paul into bringing it when he meets me there.

The details:

Sun Valley Center Arts and Crafts Festival

When: August 7 – 9, 2009

Where: Atkinson Park, 900 3rd Ave., Ketchum, ID

Hours: Friday – Saturday, 10:00 a.m. – 6:30 p.m., Sunday 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m

What I’m bringing: Pastels and Oils

Booth #G8-G9 

The Park City-Kimball Arts festival is this weekend!

Park City Kimball Arts Festival

When: July 31 – August 2, 2009

Where: 638 Park Ave, Park City, UT

Hours: Friday (preview) 6 – 9 p.m.,  Saturday, 9:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m., Sunday 9:00 a.m. – 6 p.m.

What I’m bringing: Pastels and Oils

Booth #165

The Bellevue Arts Museum show was a great success for me, and this year I am especially grateful. I know this would be a very easy time to cut back on art purchases, but Bellevue came out and supported artists in a big way. I had a great time selling art, meeting new collectors and catching up with established ones, and seeing some old friends as well. Thanks again to everyone who came out.

In fact this year, Bellevue went beyond the scheduled three days for me. After driving home to Spokane, I turned around and drove back two days later to deliver a painting to a wonderful new collector, who met me at the halfway point between Spokane and Seattle. I was thrilled that this young couple ended up with this particular painting. It was a happy ending to a story that was oddly typical of Bellevue this year.

In this case my new collectors had just missed out on a small pastel study they wanted to buy. Undaunted, they asked me about possible commissions. Later the same evening, they looked at my work online and discovered that I had made a large oil painting from the small study they has seen earlier, and as it turned out, they really needed a large piece anyway. So we made arrangements to meet before I left for my next shows and the rest is history. But not every incident like this turned out so well.

For as many pieces as I had in my booth this year (photo, above), I was astonished at how many times multiple people would want the same piece. One customer would see a piece they wanted, but decide to do some shopping and come back for it later. Meanwhile someone who had seen the same piece earlier would come back and buy it within minutes of the other person’s return. My husband and I were marveling at this, and trying to understand it. Perhaps the amount of work in the booth caused people to feel confident no one else would want “their” piece. Or perhaps the purchase is such a big decision that people prefer to leave it up to fate—if it’s still there when they return it was meant to be.

It just seems to be the way it works that if one person loves a piece of art, several others will love the same piece. It was so hard to watch the disappointment when someone just missed the one they really wanted. But that’s the nature, and the value, of one-of-a-kind work. I know I certainly have missed out on my share of things by hesitating. So I have resolved in the future to keep this in mind, and I hope some of you will do too: if you truly love it, buy it. You may only get one chance.