Now for more good news!

I hope you will join me again at 7:00 that evening, July 17th, for a wine and cheese and our second art show at the Parkside Spa and Resort! Once again I’ve teamed up with Craig Bauer, and this time Coral Clay joins in as our third artist. Come see our art in the Atrium, and wind down with us and a nice glass of wine in the beautiful Parkside penthouse city club lounge. Located at the corner of Humboldt and Blanshard, across from St. Ann’s Academy, the Parkside is only a few blocks away from the Paint-In itself, so let’s make a day of this! I think it’ll be fun. I hope to see you there!

For those of you who have never been to this event, it’s a riot. Moss Street gets closed to vehicles from Dallas Road to Fort Street (about 20 blocks), and open only to pedestrian traffic. The street is lined on either side with artists painting, sculpting, dancing, and, as usual, being more than a little odd. It attracts 30,000-40,000 people each year, so the people watching is worth it even if you aren’t a fan of the arts. But if you are, you get to talk to and watch your favorite artists do their thing, and if you’re really gung-ho, you could even vote on your favorites at the event. Check out the link for all the stuff that goes on, and be sure to check back to my blog in a few weeks for an update from me as to where they’re putting me on the street. See you there!

If you can’t make it, please join in the celebration remotely and turn off the power for an hour! And stay tuned for my 2010 portfolio, soon to be uploaded, in about 2 weeks’ time!

At any rate, Sean did listen to you when you told him which ones you liked, and he bought them immediately. Check check. Red dots. And this is what he got you for Christmas:

Merry Christmas to this wonderful family: Debbie, Sean, Brianne, Jenay, Jonah, Toby, and Charlie. I love you and miss you all.
XOXO

Take a deep breath, because here’s a long story about what happened:

The day before the show, in between Craig’s dad ferrying last-minute frames from Artworld to Dale’s Gallery for assembly, and Maria’s dad picking up over 60 easels from 5 different suppliers, while we were getting grubby putting easels together, the marketing department for the Parkside casually asked us if we’d be OK if they gave a gift of an “Ultimate Spa Weekend for Two” – a weekend accommodation and $100 spa gift certificate – to anyone spending $1000 or more on art at the show. (Um, hello? Allow me to consider this carefully for a moment….Yes, I think I’m OK with that.)

The day of the shows was a flat-out busy one. The afternoon show was a bit of a blur for me – I spent much of it in the penthouse trying to organize the last minute coffee and tea, when we realized we’d bought WAY too much coffee, but no stir sticks or napkins. My fault. Oops. I hear the coffee was fantastic, though, thanks to Maureen and Zack at Bean Around the World. And the goodies brought from the Italian Bakery by La Piola chef Cory Pelan tasted (to use some hilarious words coined by my cousin’s daughter) “like proof of heaven!”

I did manage to get downstairs and see the paintings and photographs displayed in the natural daylight streaming in through the huge Atrium windows. What a dream venue! Everything looked gorgeous. Thanks to Jim and Julia and the Parkside!

Then I picked up our delightful friend and bartender, Adrienne, and I have to thank her for the fabulous job she did! She got her Serving It Right ticket just to help us out, and she kept the wine flowing and she did it with style! It got the evening going in no uncertain terms.

I tried to remember to snarf a few of the cute little ham and cheese buns from La Piola but kept getting sidetracked by all the wonderful people who came to the show! If anyone saw me or met me at this point, I must apologize if I seemed giddy. Chalk it up to sleep and food deprivation. Thank goodness for Lindsay who magicked a delicious orange out of her purse which pulled me back from the edge. The Penthouse food seemed miles away when I was downstairs.

All evening I was overwhelmed by the number of beautiful, kind, and thoughtful people who turned up! I wanted to spend time talking to everyone, but it just wasn’t possible to focus. I kept getting stuck in the little back room where I was showing examples of giclees and prints, so there were periods of time when I was incommunicado, sadly enough. My apologies if you looked for me and couldn’t find me – I was probably up there in that room.

I think maybe about 250 or so people came to our show, based on food and wine consumption and observation of numbers in the Atrium and the Penthouse. I ran out of business cards, and I’d had a lot of them there. Somehow we managed to plan our night on the exact same night as the Annual Downtown Gallery walking tour. This was a complete accident, I swear it, since I had never even heard of the tour until the night before the show. However, I don’t regret it, because I think we got a lot of visitors in high spirits from their tour who came to rest at our venue. And why not? Free food and wine? It’s a perfect end to a perfect evening of art! It seemed like people were enjoying themselves, which is the whole point, really, isn’t it!

All in all, I would say that this show was an unqualified success. Thank you to those of you who who helped me so much with organizing, with advice, with reality checks, and with being there when I needed you. Thanks to those of you who bought paintings and giclees from me already, as well as to those of you who are about to (you know who you are!). I am humbled by the kindness you have shown me, and I hope to make you all proud.

I can now confirm that I will co-hosting an evening of art at the newest AviaWest resort in town the Parkside at 810 Humboldt St. with my friends and fellow artists Maria Hutchison and Craig Bauer on Thursday, November 26, 2009. We will host both an afternoon tea from 1-4 pm, as well as a wine and cheese in the evening from 7 – 9 pm. Check out the Facebook Event. It’s right before the holidays, so it’s time to kick back and have some fun. Come and join us! More on this very soon!

I am pleased to announce that I will be co-organizing a pre-Christmas sale of fine art, prints, and cards, all produced by Vancouver Island Artists. On November 9, we should be able to tell you the details of who, what, when, where and why. This is going to be so much fun! I look forward to seeing you there!