The Tinman Gallery‘s Alice in wonderland Invitational opens tomorrow night. My pastel, Why Not (left) will appear along with the Alice-inspired work of over 40 well-known regional artists.

The opening reception starts Friday July 30th at 5:00 and goes on until 9:00 p.m. The show itself stays up through August 21.

The Tinman is located in Spokane’s historic Garland district at 811 W Garland Ave. Regular business hours are 10-6, Monday-Saturday.

The Bellevue Artsfair starts this Friday and I couldn’t be happier. It’s been a long break between shows for summer, so I’m anxious to get back. And Bellevue is one of the best!

This year I’m thrilled to be showing my oil paintings along with my pastels for the first time in Bellevue. And I will have a lot of them after I take down the Metamorphosis show from the Kress Gallery on Wednesday. Show weeks are always busy, but this is especially crazy… after spending today framing and delivering my Alice in Wonderland piece to the Tinman Gallery, I have to take down shows at Pacific Garden Design tomorrow and the Kress on Wednesday before loading the car for the show. Plus the usual million little pre-show details like price tags and artwork lists. And covering my entire studio in plastic so my upstairs neighbor can sand his floors.

SO. Anyway. If you’re in the Seattle/Bellevue area this Friday-Saturday-Sunday, come by the Artsfair! It’s an amazing show and I will have more new and different work than ever before. The details:

Bellevue Arts Museum ArtsFair
When: July 23 – 25, 2010
Where: Bellevue Square parking garage, 510 Bellevue Way NE, Bellevue, WA
Hours: Friday – Saturday, 9:30 a.m. – 9:30 p.m., Sunday 9:30 a.m. – 6 p.m.
What I’m bringing: Pastels and Oils
Booth # J-08

And now for something else completely different… an Alice-in-Wonderland-inspired piece titled Why Not? which I’ve just completed for the Tinman Gallery‘s second annual Oz-vitational. Huh? Well, Year One was an Oz-vitational. This year all of the artwork will be inspired by the childrens’ classic, Alice in Wonderland. (Much to the relief of the artists who participated in Year One, I’m sure. Fresh inspiration!)

I’m embarrassed to admit that I had never read Alice in Wonderland nor even seen a movie version until receiving this assignment. I tried both several times as a child and never quite made it through for one reason or another. Luckily for me, a fresh movie came out on DVD just in time for my research. Better still, this particular movie had a CGI Tweedledum and Tweeedledee played by/modeled after the hilarious Matt Lucas, from the seriously funny Little Britain USA.

Anyway, back to my point if I had one. I did stop laughing just long enough to catch an approximately four-second reference to Alice and the Red Queen painting white roses red, and there was my idea. Roses dripping with shiny red paint, forming the shape of the Red Queen’s heart surrounded by white roses yet to be painted. This piece and “Alice” works by many wonderful artists will be available for purchase at the show.

The Alice in Wonderland Invitational runs from July 30 through August 21. Opening reception is from 5 – 9 p.m. Friday, August 30.

The Tinman Gallery is located in Spokane’s historic Garland District at 811 West Garland Avenue.

Despite more than the normal amount of the Traditional Artfest Rain, Artfest was a great weekend. Friday (the rainiest day) gave artists a chance to catch up with one another. At length. But Saturday and Sunday brought sun and crowds! Thanks to all my customers and friends who support my art habit. Also a big thanks to the Artfest jurors, who honored me with the Tinman Gallery 2-D Merit Award. So nice to know I will be returning to a show that is clearly on the upswing. Which brings me to my last big thank you, again to the jurors, who picked a high-quality, even show.

But, Artfest is over and it’s great to get back to the studio! I’ve missed it lately, since some soundproofing has been going on with the ceiling and everything has been piled up under plastic sheets. But with almost two months until my next show, it was time to put the construction on hold and make the studio back into a studio again.

Art fair season can really mess with creative energy, as getting outside and fiddling with the booth plays perfectly into spring fever. On the flip side, getting to the shows and actually selling some art is the best motivator I know to go paint. This week I played with an idea I’ve had for a while now, resulting in the two “Raintree” pastels pictured above. They will serve as studies for oil paintings which will, hopefully, be ready in time for Sun Valley.

And, the idea of stopping at twenty-four Teacup Oils is out the window. The Teacup Oils have been to exactly one show and I am already down NINE! So six more mini-canvases are stretched, gessoed and waiting for paint and tea-licious titles. Barely back in the studio and there’s more on my plate than I can probably finish before Bellevue. All or nothing… that’s the art life.

p.s. Many of the paintings from my booth at Artfest plus a few more are on display at Pacific Garden Design through mid-July. PGD is open to the public, but if you plan to go, give them a call first to be sure someone is there! It’s a beautiful space with amazing pots for sale (and garden design, of course).

Artfest is upon us! Opening this Friday at noon, it runs through Sunday. I’ll be there as usual (still don’t know what booth!) with new pastels and oil paintings, including my new Teacup Oils – little 6″ x 6″ x 2″ canvases painted on five sides and named after delicious tea flavors both real and imaginary. (Pomegranate Twist, Chamomile Bliss and Guava Mint are shown above)

Something new: this year I will be donating 1% of art festival sales to the ASPCA. I’m calling it my ASPCA Summer of Love. I get asked for a lot of donations every summer from various arts organizations, many of which I know nothing about. This year I decided to choose where my donations went. Since I love animals enough not to eat or wear them, the ASPCA seemed like a good place to start. More on this later.

In the meantime, come to Artfest, enjoy the day, and support the arts by buying real art from real artists!

Artfest

When: June 4 – 6, 2010

Where: Coeur d’Alene Park, 2nd & Chestnut, Spokane, WA

Hours: Friday 12 p.m. – 8 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. – 8 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

The Kress Gallery, Riverpark Square, Spokane, Washington

Metamorphosis is my premier exhibition to feature oil paintings exclusively. The title represents both a recurring theme in the work—the transformation of leaves into winged “creatures”—and my own growth as an artist through the exploration of a different medium.

For purchase or other information contact Tammy Gabbert at the Northwest Museum of Art and Culture.

Metamorphosis (works in oil) runs May 7 through July 20, 2010

Last weekend was the show In Belleville, Illinois, and we are back and pretty much recovered. Belleville is a three-day drive from Spokane, if you drive ten-hour days. We drove down in two days. I do not recommend this.

Horrendous drive aside, we arrived to find a very nice little show with a very high quality of art and one of the most helpful groups of volunteers I have ever encountered. This show staff treats artists like rock stars that they think are too skinny. Despite all the work of setting up and working an art fair, I think I actually gained weight with the constant barrage of treats (including homemade cookies in the shape of a #1 to commemorate the shows national ranking).

Once we opened up the booth Friday night (photo of my inexplicably Hello-Kitty-Pink booth above), the supportive and savvy local art collectors quickly relieved me of some of my prized work. The show drew large crowds Friday and Sunday. On rainy Saturday, when the masses stayed home, serious buyers braved the weather relieved to have the show more or less to themselves.

 Sunday morning I unzipped the tent to be startled by a pair of mourning doves fluttering and flapping around the ceiling, perching on my walls and critiquing my paintings. As much as they seemed to disapprove of the art, they very much liked the tent, and refused to budge. We had to leave them there during the artists’ breakfast and shoo them out later that morning. Fortunately Sprayway glass cleaner is a good multi-tasker.

The show went well overall which made for a pleasant ride home. During our more leisurely three-day return trip, we saw some sights that in a former life as a T-shirt illustrator, I drew repeatedly and ad nauseum: the Corn Palace, Mount Rushmore, Devil’s Tower, Sturgis. We even stopped in at Wall Drug. I had no idea you could see all of them in one day. If only I had seen a wolf, that day would have been complete, because yes, in my past life, I made WOLF SHIRTS. How cool am I.

Onward.

(p.s. I documented this show from the road on my Facebook fan page. To follow future odysseys, “like” my page here.)

Opening Reception Friday, May 7, 5 – 8 p.m.

The Kress Gallery, Riverpark Square, Spokane, Washington
Music by Haywire (Don Thomsen and Dan Black)
Catered by Twigs

I’m putting the last touches on paintings for Metamorphosis, my show at the Kress Gallery in downtown Spokane. I’ve been painting for this show for so long, I can hardly believe it’s almost here! Metamorphosis is my first time to exhibit oil paintings exclusively, and it will feature some of my most ambitious work to date. I’m so excited to see it go up. I’ve even hired a swing duo, Haywire, featuring Don Thomsen and Dan Black, to play at the reception. I hope to see you there!

Metamorphosis (works in oil) runs May 7 through July 18, 2010