Close to the Holidays

We are getting all of our custom orders completed and now we are finalizing our new artwork for our 2 month tour in Florida. I was really happy that our customer liked their custom order of 3 children. They have 2 blonde-haired little girls and they are adopting a new little girl from Africa. They wanted a painting with the 3 girls (not portraits) so the new daughter would feel like she is part of the family. Isn't that great!!!! I will upload the artwork for you who might be out there to see.



Also I completed a commission for Sue in Omaha that was a large 48x60 horizontal landscape with my red roof houses...A satisfied customer is a real pleasure to any of you artists who have ever had to do commission work.



I put many miniature paintings on eBay with very limited success. Last year was a bonanza and I seemed to get some excitement in the bidding. This year most items are not getting bid or they are sold at my lowest price. I appreciate the sales anyway because the eBay customers are a very special group of collectors.



It seemed I had better success last year because I had a lot of mini mini's -- aceo paintings and similar. Also I cleaned out my studio inventory at giveaway prices last year and this year I haven't had time to go through my inventory.



This year I was slower getting items photographed and listed for eBay but all auction items will be completed before Christmas. As we are leaving for Florida, any auction items that might sell I want to get shipped asap. The unsold items I am putting in my store for awhile and if I put them out in Florida to sell, I will just remove them from the store. The paintings I have listed for $24 and $49 I normally sell for $35 and $65 respectively.



All my Christmas shopping done except for 2 or 3 smaller items .... need to return something I purchased that already doesn't work -- a baby toy that doesn't make music when it is supposed to. Fortunately I don't have to mail it out.



This past year has literally flown by and I am excite to see what God has planned for us in 2008. This month we had to have foundation repairs on our house.... $10,000 not including the needed sheetrock repair after they lifted the house. Life is really a challenge but God is still in the midst of the challenges.



I hope you have had a wonderful year and are in good health. Let's look forward to the exciting and joyful times ahead in 2008. God bless you richly.

p.s. If you get a chance, look at our new website (long overdue) at www.contemporarypictures.com

New Art on Auction this week

Hello to anyone out there taking the time to read this. So far I am the main writer and reader but it is okay...It makes me more disciplined to take the time to read this. I painted quite a few miniature paintings during the month of November and, since December is a slow month in Houston, I have put them up for auction on eBay. I am hoping that I get more for them than what I have listed...that would not be good.

I put a few of the new paintings on my blog in case no one know I am back and running at eBay.
I have already gotten one bid on my first or second listing this morning...their are some great collectors on eBay and I was thrilled to hear from Sonya.

Now that I have taken the time to look at my blog, I realize all of my eBay auction items are listed at the bottom of my blog page.... plenty of duplication. Hope you enjoy the paintings..which you will see twice it appears.

If I don't blog again before the holidays, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. May God richly bless you this year and the coming new year.

Home for the Holidays

We have done several shows since my last post. Some were great and others disappointing. We finished out the year in Florida and perhaps would have been wiser to stay home after the middle of November.

I did manage to get a lot of painting done while on the road so that is the good news. Today and the rest of the week I will be working on custom orders to ship before Christmas. Also this week I will be applying to spring shows and getting our house in order.

I have painted some miniature originals from 4x4 to 5x7 so will try to post them online before the end of next week. It has been awhile since I posted any artwork on eBay so I am ready to get started. I had gotten such great collectors last year that I feel I have neglected that aspect of the business this year. Now is the time to get busy.

We will be in town until after Christmas and I have updated my travel schedule. I am thrilled to have gotten back on the OKC this April because it is one of my favorite shows. Guiteau is number one on the waitlist for the Ft. Worth Main Street show. Springtime looks good.

Before the month of December is up I will update my blog. God bless you all.

Back to Work

It is hard to believe that 3 months have passed since my last posting. This is something it is hard to get going awhile. I kept procrastinating.. I could have taken the time. Now I am trying to get the energy to do the Texas reports for Sunshine Artist as well as some other recent shows we have attended.

It has been good to be home after 7 weeks travelling. Many of the shows exceeded our expectations and others were below sales expectations. The new show we tried in Atlanta was a disappointment but we at least broke even. That is nothing to cheer about but it could have been worse.

Louisville KY was a very hard show this year due to the severe heat and humidity. Most of the artists had their worse show ever. Guiteau had his own booth this year in an unfavorable spot so sales were poor. I had my best show ever so I will not complain about the heat.

I didn't get in the Bayou City downtown show this year but Guiteau did and, of course, I was there helping him with setup, sales, advice??? etc.

He had a record show at Bayou downtown and they had record Saturday attendance. What a difference a year makes! Last year we were deluged with buckets of rain and this year the rain didn't happen until the last load to our truck.

We have been preparing for our fall shows -- some of which will be new for us this year. The Memphis show and the Ocean Springs show will be new and we were both accepted so it will be interesting to see how we do.

I will try to keep my posts at least every couple of weeks for my own benefit also. Some of our new artwork will be shown when I get a chance to upload.

Have a great season...Hope you haven't quit reading since I quit writing. e

After Ann Arbor

We are in a small town in Colorado called Sterling.... We were happy to find it had a new Comfort Inn because it did not look like it had accommodations and we were very tired.

Ann Arbor surprised us this year. Everyone had been singing the blues about how slow the economy is in Michigan. Also, right before the show one of the largest employers Pfizer laid off employees and are moving out of Michigan.

While the show started very slow, I actually did slightly better than last year. Guiteau got in the show this year so we ended up with more. Some of the artists did not pull out the needed sales for this event but we thank God for what we made.

The excitement we had on Thursday we could have done without. The tornado sirens went off about 3:30 pm and we hurried up and closed our booth and sought shelter. We watched and prayed while the winds were whipping up several tents on our streets. About 8 tents in all were somewhat damaged with some loss of merchandise. However, as they are all troopers -- experienced -- and they found some new rental tents or fixed the ones they had and set back up after the weather cleared the next day.

I must admit that Ann Arbor is physically a very difficult show. It is a four day show and lasts until 9pm every night except Sunday.....we are happy it is over.

We also had a very respectable show in St. Joseph, Michigan - the Krasl Art Festival. Between the two of us we had the same sales as I did in one booth last year. The booth prices are very reasonable so I was glad we both got in the show.

The show in Denver we will be doing this weekend is a new show and I have no idea what to expect. It will be an adventure. My relatives live in the area so we will combine a visit and try the show at the Park Meadows Mall. This show is from Howard Alan Events and we will hope for the best.

After Denver, we will exhibit for the first time at the Powderhorn Art Festival in Minneapolis, MN. Then, we will return to Houston.

Will post our experiences at these 2 new shows. For now, God bless and keep you well.

Back in Houston

I can tell I am getting road weary since I never finished my reports on Virginia Beach or my next show in Omaha NE. Mark, I appreciate your comments on my Virginia Beach blog but never got your email. Hopefully you saw our artwork in Omaha during the college world series.

Virginia Beach turned out to be a beautiful week after a cold Thursday with slight drizzle. This was a blessing because it can be extremely hot on the boardwalk and no one wants to look if the weather is too hot. We ended the show profitably at Virginia Beach, up from last year. A last minute $2,000 sale was the reason. Thank God.

We took a leisurely route to Omaha via the Pennsylvania turnpike. We made it in 2-1/2 days while an artist friend made it in 2. He confessed he drives about 80 mph and takes few stops. He is young and energetic. We stop and sit down for lunch and keep the truck at about 65 mph.

Friday was windy and rainy in the afternoon but the crowds during the day didn't buy anything from us. They did not seem like our type of customers. Saturday and Sunday was very different and we ended up with 50 percent higher sales than Virginia Beach.

Our trip back to Houston was great and we really appreciated our comfortable bed when we got home. Travelling is always nice and coming home is very sweet.

Aaron (my grandson) will be working with us now at shows and starting to create his own art in the next year. His goal is to start exhibiting at some of the same shows starting next year as a young emerging artist. He has talent and we are thrilled he has made this decision.

I will keep posting...We are due back out on the road in a couple of weeks. God bless you all.

Virginia Beach

Well, we decided to drive straight thru to Virginia Beach yesterday. We arrived about 11:00 pm and were able to get a temporary room. They have booked us for a different room for the rest of our stay.

Virginia Beach is one of our favorite shows because we feel that this is our vacation time. Even though we will set up our booth on Wednesday and sit outside for the following 4 days, how can you beat looking out at the Atlantic Ocean and walking a few steps to your hotel every day. The boardwalk is wonderful and the Hilton Hotel next door has terrific food. We don't stay there because the room prices are outrageous and they don't have a parking lot for our truck.

We are getting ready to get up and about this morning..but wanted to keep this blog up to date. Allentown Art Festival was a nice surprise. Buffalo has a depressed economy but nevertheless our sales were very good. We look forward to returning next year. The people are very nice in western New York and the drive getting there is breathtaking. We drive thru the Poconos in Pennsylvania and it is magnificent to view.

Will post later.....God bless you.

Show Updates

I can't believe I haven't posted since Decatur, GA. Last weekend we were in my favorite place..the city of brotherly love. It is definitely Philadelphia. We had a wonderful hotel and great weather until the time to take down our display. The show was very profitable and we had wonderful accommodations. We started taking down our display at 5pm and it had already started raining. Then it rained harder and harder. Needless to say, the tent protecting us had to eventually be taken down and put in the truck. We were totally drenched at about 8:30 pm when we finished. We had 2 booths to it was double work. We were fortunate that one of our acquaintances from Philly agreed to help us. Michael McShane, also known as Cowmuddy was our helper. He is a singer, guitar player and song writer who earns extra money doing different odd jobs. He told us his new job is shoveling horse manure on a nearby farm. He loves the horses, but the job stinks. (Literally). But, he has a musician's heart and does what it takes to get by. He gave us one of his cd's but we have not yet had time to listen to it. We meet such interesting talented people in our travels. Michael is one of them.

Today is our first day in Buffalo, NY at the Allentown Art Festival. We had huge crowds but the economy here has been depressed for quite some time. Nevertheless, Guiteau sold some large pieces and I sold about 3 small paintings. Our sales were decent for the area. This is a show we enjoy doing as this show is easy to set up. We leave our truck parked behind our booth so we will be able to start tearing our booth down a little early. We are looking forward to Sunday sales. I have a potential buyer looking at a large painting..I hope they choose to purchase this. It will make our show.

Take care and God bless you.

Decatur arts Festival

Today is Memorial Day so let me say from my heart "thank you" for all the service men and women who have given their lives and those who are now serving. Thanks for using your gift of service for which me and my family have been protected.

This is a day of recuperation for Guiteau and me. We are staying in Decatur an extra day since we don't have to be in Philadelphia until Thursday afternoon. We had planned to stay until Wednesday morning but have changed plans to visit Guiteau's Mom in New Jersey. She has been staying in New Jersey since April and this is a great opportunity to see her and Guiteau's brother Peter. Guiteau's Mom lives in Port au Prince, Haiti but revisits every 6 months to keep her green card active.

To summarize the Decatur Arts Festival, it was a cliffhanger. By that I mean that we really didn't make the sales we had hoped for until the very last couple of hours. Guiteau won third place overall in the juried competition which means he is automatically reinvited for next year's show and he received $100 prize money. We received so many enthusiastic comments about his work that we were sure this was going to be a fabulous show. However, we made only one sale on Saturday and Sunday nothing happened until late in the day. The results ended up very favorably with total sales slightly more than our average. Thanks to God for being right on time.

Today we are going to the art supply store to pick up some paints and pastel pencils that we forgot to bring with us. Our next painting time will be in Buffalo after the Rittenhouse art show. Some of the larger pieces we sold were from Guiteau's new collection of primitives. That was exciting since we think these are a great direction for his work.

It is about 8:30 this morning. Guiteau is still asleep and obviously I am not. He definitely does more physical work taking the booth down and lifting the very heavy artwork. We were grateful we found a willing worker to help us load out from the show. His name is Jeff and he was one of the best hard working young men we have met.

So long for now. Probably won't post until Philadelphia. God bless you all.

Decatur Arts Festival

We arrived in Decatur, Ga last night and were pleasantly surprised to find out we were about a block from the show site. It took us awhile to find the general area of the show as the map is kind of vague. Fortunately I brought a local Decatur map that was more specific.

Our hotel through Priceline was the Holiday Inn full service hotel. Fortunately we found parking in the back of the hotel for our truck. That is always a challenge.

Guiteau is the only exhibitor this weekend so it will be interesting to see how we do. We are out of very large handmade paper because of our great success last weekend. With 5 more shows to do before we get home it is going to be challenging. I can paint (and have) in the hotels but Guiteau's handmade paper collages needed to be done in the studio. After Omaha we will be focused on his work for a few weeks to get ready for Ann Arbor and the 4 other shows.

We are getting ready to walk over to the show site to see if they have marked our space yet. We got a double space so we would be able to hang all around the panels and show more work. That will benefit our neighbors too but that is fine. I hope by the time we get there the spaces will get marked and we can figure out where we will be able to park our truck for setup. These are challenges for each show and we will get it done one way or another.

It is about 11:30 am est so it is time to get moving. After we find our space we will go to the local grocery store and pick up some microwave dinners so our hotel bill doesn't get too high from room service.

Will post in a couple of days..

Broad Ripple Art Fair

Well the show is over and today we are just resting in our hotel. We will stay in Indianapolis until Thursday so I can continue to paint.

Great show for both of us. We had beautiful weather, great crowds and most importantly, great sales. The setup for the show went very smoothly and we were able to park right next to our booth. The same with takedown. Saturday started out with a bang and we both made a very good sale early; however, the rest of the day the interest was given but sales in Guiteau's booth never increased. I made a few more sales and we were satisfied with the end result between the 2 booths. Sunday was slower getting started and although there seemed to be interest in our booths, I was the only one that made a couple of sales in the afternoon. But, after 3:30 Guiteau had 2 fabulous sales. One customer bought a very large dimensional collage for $2000 and another bought 3 good size artwork for $3,300. So in the last hour and a half he surpassed my 2 day sales. I always say you never know how the sales of a show will be until the very last hour. Since our artwork is not an impulse item, it takes awhile for collectors to make the decision to buy. We would love to do the show again next year but the artist survey indicated they were going to Zapplication. That was disappointing but we can't change it. We will keep our fingers crossed.

Next week we will only be doing Guiteau's booth in Decatur, Ga and I will give a report on that show next.

May God keep you safe in your travels, on the highway and bless you richly.

Painting Today

Yesterday was spent filling out show applications which are now due for the fall and winter season. Time sure goes by fast. We are already getting applications for 2008. We also paid a LOT of credit card bills. Fortunately we had a good OKC show so we can pay most of them off.

Today and tomorrow I will be painting all day. It is almost 3:00 am and I have been painting in the hotel room since about 10:00 am. I began these paintings in Birmingham and will try to get some painted in the next few weeks. These are mostly small originals which I am very low in my inventory. My inventory was involuntarily depleted last weekend after someone grabbed 3 of my original 18x24 matted paintings. I haven't had any paintings stolen in about 5 years so I was in shock.... I forgive them but I hope they get no rest until they regret having taken something that didn't belong to them.

I spend so much time on these small original paintings that I think I should give them up. My husband Guiteau says I should just raise the prices so I won't feel like I am selling them too low for the amount of labor I put into them. Maybe I will when I get to Philadelphia.

Goodnite to anyone reading this and God bless you.

Indianapolis

Yesterday we arrived in Indiana preparing for the Broad Ripple Art Fair. We have a very nice large hotel room complete with kitchen. This will make it easy to spend time on some new paintings for upcoming shows. The hotel we got on a Hotwire.com special price under $50 per night. Between Priceline.com and Hotwire.com, we have good hotel rates to keep expenses down (to make up for rising diesel prices). Our biggest expenses will be in Philadelphia and Virginia Beach. We consider the Virginia Beach Boardwalk show as part show, part vacation, so the hotel price is considered in that light. Our room overlooks the booth tied to the railings on the beach and allows us to dolly our artwork nearby.

Last weekend was in Birmingham, MI and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. The crowds were enjoying the weather and strolling the art show. I can't say it was a great show sales wise. Some artists had an excellent show -- one glass, one 3d mixed media and I am sure the "imported" clay flowers sold very well. Unfortunately the shows don't realize that importers are starting to enter the fine art shows and are getting accepted (even under Zapplications).

This is a big pet peeve of mine, but I don't think I can complain unless I print out the imported websites and mail it to the various show directors. I am not sure how to handle this without causing a major issue. I believe if I can print out the various websites that are selling these items to wholesalers and are not created by the exhibiting artist, then the problem will become theirs to investigate.

I love the Birmingham area and hope the sales will enable us to try once again.

Birmingham Fine Art Fair

This morning started with lots of enthusiasm and sunshine. After a couple of small sales the crowds thinned out and most artists experienced a pretty slow afternoon. A resident of Birmingham indicated the economy in the area and surrounding townships have really experienced a poor economy with problems pending for the large auto makers. However, our experience in the area is that Sunday usually generates in sales from many of those who seemed just to browse on Sunday. My artist husband Guiteau had a couple of larger sales so between us we are getting to our goals. Tomorrow will tell the tale.

I did an interview with a videographer this morning and I was so happy that they were shooting it with my sunglasses on. They may use part of this or my artwork for their public relations attempts to attract conferences to the area. This is without doubt a beautiful area of the country so I don't think they have to sell it too hard. It is breathtaking to see the beautiful trees and local mass floral plantings. I need to take some photos...maybe tomorrow.

I will post next week and let the results be known about how the Birmingham show did.

On the Road again

It has been almost a month since posting even though we have been back on the road since the first weekend of May.

This weekend we will be in Birmingham, MI for a Mother's Day weekend art festival. It looks like we will have beautiful weather this year....we won't talk about last year's weather during this event. Not a pretty picture.

Last weekend we were in the Dallas, Texas area at the Cottonwood Art Festival. We set up early on Thursday night in the middle of rain and mud but it was worth it to not have to dolly our artwork a long distance. The weathermen fortunately were wrong for the prediction of high winds, tornado watches and pretty scary weather. We had a little drizzly rain for a short time on Saturday and beautiful weather on Sunday. We used the boy scouts Troop 1001 for loading out and they were fantastic. This is a very hard show normally for setting up and taking down but we were blessed this year. We were finished before 8pm on Sunday and the boys did all the hard dollying. Also, an extra blessing was great sales.

Next week we will be heading off to Indianapolis, Indiana for the Broad Ripple Art Festival. We will both have booths at this event. It is our first time to exhibit at this show so we are excited. We have done other Indianapolis shows and have gotten a good response.

I will be blogging again next week to I can keep up to date and not have to write about 3 or 4 shows at a time.

Take care, drive safely and may God richly bless you.

Hectic Monday

The day after a local art show is always hectic. We must get the art unloaded from our truck after loading up the night before without lots of sleep. But it is almost done thanks entirely to Guiteau. I say "we" but he does all of the lifting.

Today also happens to be the last day before taxes. This year I actually finished on time sending my materials to the tax preparer....I don't know why I procrastinate at all but it is finished.

Lots of mail today because we were out of town (not far) since last Wednesday evening. Many credit cards bill due to payments on art supplies, hotels, gas and the usual items related to being a travelling artist.

Our show this past weekend was mixed. We did have very cold windy weather on Saturday. Fortunately it wasn't as cold as San Antonio the week before. And, Sunday was a beautiful sunny day with lots of strollers - (baby and otherwise). Our sales were slightly below average for the show but since we didn't spend lots of money for diesel we actually made a little money. Two of my neighbors did exceedingly well as did a raku artist from Texas. It seemed to be that 3-d artwork and fine crafts were outselling the painters and other wall type of artwork. Sometimes it just works that way. Last year we did about double of what we did this year. But, we will hope to give it another try next year in 2008.

The patron's party and art drawing was great and generated a lot of interest. The food was exceptional. I was told it was an expanded appetizer event and we thought it wouldn't be enough. So we had Mexican food about 3 hours before the event and we weren't hungry enough to really enjoy the delicious food.

The rest of this week I will continue to paint and prepare for the Oklahoma City Arts Council Festival of the Arts. That is a very long show and can be excellent for sales. I am hoping I have the right items again this year for the collectors.

May God bless you all once more each and every day. Let's keep our troops, leaders and families in prayer.

San Antonio Freeze

Well, in 25 years of attending the Starving Artist Show in San Antonio we have never experienced 27 degree weather. This was totally unexpected and very miserable on Saturday. About one third of the exhibitors never showed up for the event and another group never opened up their display on Saturday. It was cold, damp, drizzly and VERY windy. I didn't see any tents blow over but that may because I never left my booth.

Surprisingly we made a few sales on Saturday. Die-hard collectors who know this is only a once-a-year deal did come out specifically for some artists and we were part of them. Sunday was actually pretty pleasant but it was Easter Sunday and never good for this event. Many of the artists actually did better on Saturday. We pulled out a few very nice sales on Sunday. Our totals were down about 50 percent from last year but we were amazed (and thanked God) that we sold anything.

However, since the show was poorly attended we have lots of inventory left, particularly on our smaller items which we are trying to decrease for space accommodations. So, I am putting up some artwork on eBay, mainly 16x20 acrylic paintings. Hopefully, someone there will see what great deals these are and will want to add to their art collection.

I am getting ready to go out again this coming weekend to The Woodlands, TX so won't be posting for a couple of days. Take care and may God continue to richly bless you in ALL ways.

Today we are getting ready to go to San Antonio for our yearly LaVillita Starving Artist Show and Sale. The weather report does not look good for this year but God is still in control. He can bring customers in spite of the weather for this worthy event.

The good news is that the forecast for Friday is favorable and that is the day we set up. It is nice to set up when it is NOT raining. We have brought beautiful new artwork and will sell them at our GREAT discounts for this weekend only. We call it a studio clearance sale; however, many of the items will go back to regular inventory for normally priced art shows.

Some of the items that I do not sell that have to be put away until next year I will take photos to auction at eBay. Just sold 2 items this past week -- one beautiful painting framed with silver leaf frame went for just $99 plus $20 freight called "Sisters". This is normally priced at $450. This type of work will be offered this weekend in San Antonio for $225.

Next weekend we will be headed to The Woodlands a suburb of Houston. Even though it is only an hour away, we are staying at The Marriott near the show for convenience sake.

Will report on the success of the San Antonio show next week and hopefully can say the weather was not bad. God bless you all and have a wonderful holiday -- Passover, Easter and any other activities that will honor Him.

It's raining in Houston

Happy Birthday to me -- can't believe I have turned 64. Actually I am looking forward to next year when I can get Medicare. We currently have no health insurance so Guiteau and I really work on staying healthy with the help of the Lord of course.

I appreciate the wonderful jewelry Dollie made for me for my birthday and the card. She is like my sister that I love dearly and have known for over 30 years. I really appreciate the photo she sent of Guiteau and I about 20 years ago....I was slim and much younger then... maybe I am wiser now??
My cousin Jeanne also sent a cute card about how when we were young we wanted to be "bigger". Well, "bigger" isn't always taller. :)

Today it is raining but it is really welcome. Since we are not doing an outdoor show this weekend I don't mind. We are working in the comfort of our studio so it is pleasant. Also, the rain will wash away a lot of the pollen that has fallen in the past month. Flowers will be blooming soon.

Next week is our San Antonio show for clearing out a lot of art from our studio. Ten percent of all sales go to the Little Church of LaVillita and we get to keep the rest. It is a blessing for all of us. Because it will be Easter weekend I don't know how the Sunday sales will be but we expect and hope for the best.

Last Tuesday we had a home appointment and sold a very large landscape painting to a couple who had a beautiful home in Houston. It just seemed custom made for them and they were happy. We were also happy to have our artwork in such a great environment. It also helped our sales for the show.

Also, I got a call from a customer this week that they may be purchasing a very large (48x60) painting from us soon. It is for their home in South Carolina and I will probably hold it until August but it is nice to know that they are still interested. That will be a nice addition to my sales at the Bayou City Memorial Park show last weekend.

Keep safe....and God bless you all. Continue to pray for our troops, their families and all of ours and yours. elaine

News from Houston

I can't believe it has been over 2 weeks since I last posted..... guess it is because I am back in Houston and extremely busy doing shows back to back. When we are on the road in the hotel there is little to do but post or paint.

Last weekend was our Bayou City Memorial Park show. We managed to keep most of the rain under control until Monday night after all the artists were long gone. There were plenty of customers in the show and many buying lots from several artists, an average amount for most of the others and less for others. One particular artist who was new to the show and had work that was geared more for corporate sales did phenomenally well..... we all turned green. We always want each other to do well and we are rooting for the whole show but I can say without a doubt when one individual does about 10 times what others are doing there is some disappointment.

The previous week we were in Alabama and had one of the best shows ever in a long time...we thought we had it "all together". But the following weekend we had one of our lower (not lowest) shows in our backyard. Fortunately or unfortunately being in Houston has some positives and negatives. We are able to make appointments and see collectors while we are in town after the show, but sometimes customers will wait to buy because they figure they can catch us in our studio. We had a great sale of a beautiful large painting on Tuesday and that made the show much sweeter. We are also waiting to hear from another customer that was interested in Guiteau's larger abstracts.

I am sorry to say that I missed my cousin Bruce's wonderful wedding...I am guessing it was very wonderful but I am so happy for him as well as Julie. They just belong together and I hope they have a long happy wedded life. Guiteau and I will have been married 23 years this October. Time flies when you get to be our age.

The good news about my skin cancers is that they are all treatable. All 3 biopsies came back as basal cell carcinoma rather than the more advanced type. Thank God! I have had 2 burned off and we are waiting to see how the leg heals before the doctor does the last one. He said the only problem with skin cancer on your legs is that it takes months to heal and you have to keep the infection away. I am diligent because I would rather they be burned off than cut and sewed. The cost of surgery would have been several thousand dollars and the cauterizing is so much less. I believe I was blessed to find the right dermatologist. And, of course, I know Jesus is the Great Physician.

I am cleaning out my studio so I have posted many larger paintings on eBay for 5 days before we go to San Antonio next week. San Antonio is the Starving Artist Show where we clear out the studio and the Church of LaVillita gets 10 percent and the customer gets a BIG bargain on beautiful artwork.

Will try to post more often but it is busy right now. Take care and God keep you and our soldiers safe. xx

Dedicated to Jeanne

Happy Birthday (65th) to my cousin Jeanne!!! Jeanne, I just want to tell you how much we love you and admire you. Jeanne is beautiful, classy and has a voice like honey. She makes you feel great when you are around her. She is neat, organized and extremely thoughtful. She is too good for words. I just want to share her goodness with the world. Happy Birthday again.

Tomorrow I will post more but this was a blog I wanted to release today.

Wow...I can't believe it has been so long since I posted anything. I have done two shows since then and arrived back in Houston yesterday. Well today will be short because I have a full schedule and would like to summarize the last couple of weeks of my trip...the good, the bad, and the ugly. The good outweighs the bad so that is the Good News. Even in the bad God revealed Himself to us and kept us praising Him.

I have a week before we exhibit at two more shows so it will be hectic. But, I want to keep my blog more current than once a month so I will at least make weekly postings. That is my vow.

Just got notice that we will be accepted in our Philadelphia show at Rittenhouse Square in June as well as Broad Ripple in Indianapolis, Indiana in May, in Omaha the third week in June and in Dallas the first week of May. We will be very busy the months of May and June. Maybe some of you who are attending these shows will stop by and say hello. God Bless You All. e

Today is President's Day and we sat around working on juried art slides... it is like torture. We got a few applications finished but I had difficulty concentrating all day.

I posted a new Mixed Media Collage of Guiteau's that I tried on eBay since we didn't do a show this week. It is a cubist figure 18x36. So far we have one bid on it and it will end this week.

My artwork on eBay sometimes generates inquiries for custom orders and I am going to have to figure out a way to charge for these items as they always take longer than those I create with total freedom to do what I want. Most orders are gut wrenching to say the least.

Pray for peace....for all of us...for me too. (especially the last few days) God bless you,

Tour of Palm Beach

Today was bitter cold in Florida but had a wonderful visit with Beverly Delaney today. (She is old acquaintance -- from Houston ). She is living the good life in Florida and picked me up in her classy looking silver Corvette. She has a beautiful spacious apartment on Singer Island overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. While I should have been working on juried art slides, this visit was much more fun.

Because of the cold weather we had to eat indoors at a local restaurant on on the ocean, but we had a great view of the water. Actually the food was good too. Beverly and I go back many, many years and had lots of catching up. Guiteau stayed in our hotel and just rested up and got a break from me today.

The best part of the day was driving in and out of the small private roads of the mansions along the A1A in Palm Beach. The "Donald's" estate was beyond words to describe. I left my camera in the hotel but I couldn't have really captured the beauty of the homes (estates), the landscaping and the picture perfect neighborhoods (not a good word to describe this paradise).
I love the tall hedges around the estates that serve as privacy walls.

Even though I can't live in any of these mansions, they were stunning to look at and just imagine the dinners, events and parties that probably take place here.

Tomorrow I reallyyyyyyyy must get busy with my paperwork. But, for today, all is well and I had a perfect day. Goodbye and Goodnight.

Yesterday was a day of ups and downs and one which I would like to forget. The down was that we were waiting to see if we could exhibit at Artigras this year as we have the past 4 years and they were not taking names for last minute cancellations. This has always been a very good selling show for both Guiteau and me so it is costly to be sitting around spending money. It is disappointing that neither of us will be at this show.

I called on my South Miami show to find out the location of my booth and was told it would not be the large booth I had paid for. They had a lot of requests and said they sent letters telling me and others of this with refunds for the extra money paid. This is one week before the show and the letter they said they sent was never received. The good news is that after 4 phone calls they said they would make a larger space for me at the beginning of the show and I would pay the small difference. It costs more because it is actually 2 regular size booths rather than the one extra large. Regardless, it should work out okay.

See.....it is getting better. I have made it past another hurdle. Two challenges and I am still alive and breathing. I have been arguing with my emotions for the past hour and hate that these little daily ups and downs are keeping me down. It is such a girly girl thing isn't it?

Now to the better news....

I went online to check emails and found out that both Guiteau and I are accepted in the Omaha Summerfest this year. This is a nice good selling show and we have always done one booth until last year when I was wait listed. Since our work is so different now, we applied separately with our individual work and it will be interesting to see if it has any affect on sales. I know it won't be twice as much but an increase would be satisfying.

I had planned to spend the day yesterday working on my juried show applications and instead spent it driving by the Artigras show, working on my Miami booth and wallowing in self pity. I should have spent the afternoon on the beach visiting with Beverly Delaney who has moved down here from Houston. Because I had planned to work on Wednesday we didn't spend time. Now we are rescheduling for later in the week. She is always so positive and it would have been time better spent with her rather than in my Pity Party. Maybe I should refer to it as a Pitiful Party. I have capitalized it because I made it such a special event lately.

Today I am up before dawn having gone to sleep early. It is a new day and I have new energy to face the task of show applications... I don't know of any artist who loves doing these.

I put a few of Guiteau's new mixed media artwork on eBay just to get a response. Because they are at higher prices I am not sure how this will work. He doesn't really have any small items to test right now. I just put them up because we are spending money out of town and I thought if I could get some sales this way it might offset the costs.

This blog is getting boring so I am going to make a fresh pot of java. Bye.....God Bless You.

Today was uneventful. After a hectic weekend and drive down to Palm Beach, we just ordered room service and napped off and on. I worked on shipping a couple of my eBay orders and prepared my desk to work on art show applications this week.

The weather was pretty hot today but we are expecting to get down to 70 degrees this weekend. That probably seems wonderful for those of you in the upstate New York and midwest, but it is a little chilly for this area.

I posted a couple of new items today. The top few paintings will be offered for sale at my upcoming shows in Florida. I also decided to post my art schedule directly on this blog because I don't have my website complete. So...if any of you get to these shows please come by and say hello.

Back in Florida

Time really flies....It has been over a week since I have posted to this blog and I realize how easy it is to keep procrastinating.

We just finished a show in New Smyrna Beach, Florida this past weekend. We were so pleasantly surprised with our hotel. It is a newly remodeled Holiday Inn on the beach. When we got to the room we were blown away with the size of this mini apartment. It was spacious with a large bathroom, separate bedroom and living room with a refrigerator, microwave and a second TV.
It was just magical each morning and evening to look out and see the beautiful Atlantic and smooth sandy beach. The temperatures were very moderate reaching about 70 degrees each day and cooling at night to about 50 degrees.

The show itself went very smoothly. We had two separate booths as we both exhibited but the booths were a couple of long blocks apart. While initially we freaked out at the thought of how to accomplish this enormous task. It was unbelievable hor God worked all this out without a doubt. We went a little early and dropped Guiteau's tent and display and then went to my booth and dropped my tent, display and artwork. Then we returned to where Guiteau's booth was and parked the truck right behind the booth where we were able to leave it all weekend. What are the chances of that? That made it easy for Guiteau to load up the truck after the show and when he was done he came to my booth. I had dismantled most of the booth when he got there.

Sales at the show were about average for Florida this year. I received two Patron Purchase Awards totalling $2,000 so that was a nice touch. I also exhibited some new people paintings I just finished this month and sold one of those.

Yesterday we left the beautiful Holiday Inn and drove to Palm Beach to our new hotel. I bid on Priceline and got a 3 star hotel for $62 a night. We are at the Doubletree which is pretty nice. The reason they probably accepted our bid was that they are in the middle of rennovations. We didn't care because the rooms have already been refurbished and they are beautiful.

I am going on a wait list for my next show so I am praying for favor. Otherwise we will be one week without a show. Our show the following week will be in South Miami... I also got a good price on Homestead Village through Priceline for $50 per night. These are great prices especially for this time of year in Florida. Thanks to God.

I will keep this blog going more frequently the next couple of weeks. It is a good discipline for me. May God bless you all.

Joy Comes in the Morning

Today is Saturday and a new beginning. I was feeling down in the dumps yesterday regarding the skin lesions and I kept painting and stopping etc., etc. This morning I decided I could not afford to stay in the "pity party" as my issues are so miniscule compared to those that others had just experienced in Florida and elsewhere. Who am I to complain or feel sorry for myself?
I realize depression is a foul spirit and I would no longer obey to its call.

Let us all pray for those in Florida who have been injured, pray for those who's relatives have died the past day or so and for those who have had terrible financial hardships. I pray that they would sense the hand of God and feel the prayer of those around the country who lift them up.
May they see the good in God even during these very trying times.

I am writing today because I sense a new beginning....the old has passed away. Yesterday is just that - yesterday and today is a new beginning. There may be sorrow in the evening but joy comes in the morning...that is God's promise to all of us.

May God continue to richly bless your lives.. I have some new paintings but will post them at a later date as I must get back to painting. We leave for Florida again on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning so time is passing quickly. May God also bless those artists out there who are experiencing difficulties in their lives and for those who are travelling or exhibiting at outdoor shows this weekend.

Home in Houston

It is about 9pm in Houston and I feel I need to write in my journal because it has been about 4 days. After returning to Houston on Tuesday night it has been hectic in the studio. I have been busy shipping my orders out while Guiteau unpacks the truck with Michel, our part-time studio assistant. Michel usually sends me the mail when I am out of town but seems as if it has piled up...bills too. The last shipment of mail I got was about a week ago and it looks like 2 weeks of mail were left for me to open.

Now, among other things, I had to make some long past-due doctor's appointments. I have had some unhealed sores on my leg and back for longer than I want to say so today I had an appointment with a dermatologist. Not good to wait as skin cancers get worse with time. Somehow I have to try to schedule biopsies and surgery in between shows in March.
Monday I have an eye doctor's appointment...it never ends.

I will try to get some art photographed for eBay. I have some items that I clearance every year from my studio and bring to LaVillita for their fund-raising art show in April. I will first put them on eBay and whatever doesn't sell at a decent price I will bring to San Antonio, TX.

Also, I sold some of my very large canvas paintings in Florida and would like to get a couple of pieces done in the next week before going back to the east coast of Florida.

Paperwork, artwork, appointments........it is a lot this week. But, I am happy to be home. As you may know by now we are movie buffs. Just saw "Freedom Writers"...what an excellent and inspirational movie.

Saturday night we may go to see the Last King of Scotland. Since we are out of town so often, we try to catch up on movies with our dear Grand-son Aaron who is working and off a couple of nights so we can have family night.

God bless all of those of you who may take time to read this.....We are truly blessed. May God bless the troops, our leaders, our friends and of course our families.

Saturday and Sunny

I was too exhausted to post anything yesterday. It took us from 8am to 6 pm to dolly all of our artwork a great distance and set up our 2 booths. This had to be the hardest show we have ever had to set up. Our booth is on a baseball field in the park and no one is allowed to drive their vehicles next to their booth. You cannot imagine how difficult it was.

Today, however, is a new day and the stress and strain of yesterday has passed. The crowds started out brisk in the morning but slowed way down by the afternoon. They seemed much lower than in the past years. This is the fourth time we have exhibited in Naples Invitational Art Festival and the crowds come differently every year. We love this show. It has grown to over 240 exhibitors and is held in beautiful Fleishmann Park. Sales were somewhat slow but I did sell one very large painting with 3 children...it had two girls and a boy and it will be shipped to a visitor from Wisconsin. She is going to gift it to her husband for Valentine's Day. That's the only way to figure out how to explain a $1250 purchase while he was playing golf...quick thinking, right??

I also sold some medium and smaller mostly figurative works. The 5x7's I am picturing in this blog sold for $65. I never bring anything this small to the shows but I had been painting them the past couple of weeks in the hotel room in Florida so I thought I would get a reaction. It was quite favorable.

Tomorrow is takedown at the show. We are expecting early morning rain but we hope it will clear up before the show opens at 10am. We have requested a couple of young, strong, energetic students to help us dolly our artwork to the truck. It would be a great help and we will be happy to generously pay them for this backbreaking work... Again, the glamorous life of an artist... Monday morning we will be heading back to Texas so I am not sure whether I will blog again until we return on Wednesday. Maybe if we stop early for the evening, I will post a couple of items. In the meantime, sweet dreams, God's richest blessings to you and bye.

It is rainy and windy today in Naples, Florida. The temperature is about 55 degrees. For those of you in cold climates this probably sounds comfortable. However, for those of us who are going to be outside in Florida braving the elements, this is a bit chilly. Fortunately our show does not begin until Saturday and it is expected to be in the mid 70's by then.

Today I will spend most of the day working on show applications for the summer. This is the glamorous life of an artist - NOT. This is one of those chores which must be done if we are to continue selling in this way, but it is my least favorite jobs. Hopefully, we will be accepted in some or all of the shows we are applying to. Most non-artists have no idea how competitive the show circuit can be. We just spent another $800 or more for slides for online jurying as well as via regular mail.

I have finally listed my large gallery-wrapped Tuscan Landscape 24x36 which I am showing on this site. The "buy it now" price of $750 is well below my regular price of $1100, but I wanted to try some larger pieces on eBay and wanted a chance to see if it could sell online. Otherwise, I will have it available at the regular price of $1100 in March 2007 at the Fairhope, AL art festival.

I have also listed some new figurative works which I have one previewed today on this blog. Hope you get a chance to go to my eBay auctions to see what is new.

Please continue to pray for Guiteau and I as we travel back home and during our stay here in Florida. Thanks again to you for wonderfully supporting our artwork which gives us so much joy.

Today we will be checking out of our hotel in Ft. Lauderdale and driving over to Naples. Our last show this trip will be the Naples Invitational Art Festival in Fleischmann Park this weekend. We stay over there a little early to determine our space assignment and make sure we will be in close proximity to one another.

This week I painted some new 18x24 matted original artwork and also some miniature canvas paintings 5x7". I haven't photographed them yet but will try to upload to my blog tomorrow. One of the small paintings will be donated for a silent auction in Naples. This event is to be used for the Eden Institute of Florida which treats autism.

We saw the movie "Queen" yesterday. The acting performance of Helen Merren was excellent as was the performances of the other actors; however, the movie itself was only slightly above average.
Tomorrow we will see "Stomp the Yard" as we heard the dancing was uplifting and exciting to see.

Yesterday I listed some art miniatures on a new website www.roselanoue.etsy.com. These were items that didn't sell at auction but have been listed as fixed price items. I am trying different online galleries to reach more collectors.

Day of Rest?

Today is normally the day we just rest up and go to a movie with no other activities. After making a deposit at the bank and taking our laundry to be cleaned at the laundromat, we made a delivery.

We sold a very large 48x60 canvas that had to be delivered this afternoon. Last night we delivered another 48x60 to someone in Atlantis, Florida. Two large paintings at one show is very unusual but a nice experience. Our collectors asked for help hanging the artwork in their dining room and Guiteau, being the great nice guy that he is, obliged them. I must say the artwork really worked in their environment and I hope to get a digital uploaded to my blog to show you who may be checking my blog. These were very nice and enthusiastic people, much like our Sunday night visit.


I am always so honored to have our artwork placed in such beautiful homes. When I can see where it is being hung, it is very satisfying. However, I must admit that I also get much pleasure from the collectors who are buying my small aceos also. Whenever someone gets what your artwork is all about, it is exciting.

Tonight we went to see a movie which we had been trying to see for the past few weeks.
What a disappointment!!!! Please, whatever you do, DO NOT waste your time or money on seeing BABEL. It is truly awful..very depressing...very confusing...very fragmented and a movie which makes absolutely no sense. It is really disappointing. I cannot believe they are nominating this movie for anything. If you decide to go see it anyway, remember that you were warned.

This is how our day of rest ended...going out to see a terrible movie. Tomorrow we will go see "Queen" which I have more hopes of enjoying. I will give you a review later. Dreamgirls is a wonderful movie..very uplifting. In the meantime, sweet dreams. May God bless you all richly.

Just got home from the Delray Beach art fair at 10 pm. Show was over at 5 but dismantling our display takes about 4 hours. After that we made a delivery of a large painting (Praise the Lord!) and have another delivery scheduled Monday afternoon. I guess you can figure out that we had a very good art show this past weekend. The majority of sales were made on Sunday afternoon. It's a good thing I didn't write a blog last night or it would have sounded very grim. But, what a difference a day makes!

Next week I plan to add a few more medium size originals to my auction items. I have enough inventory for a few more shows so I would like to pull about 6 out and list them on auction. I am still trying to figure these auctions out. I do enjoy them because I feel I am gaining a new group of collectors and it has been a pleasure communicating with them and hearing their positive comments about our art.

If I get my paintings edited I will preview a couple on this blog for those that don't get to the auction. Hope you will enjoy them. Good night.

My postings are getting fewer and farther between because not a lot is happening. Last weekend at Bocafest was our best show since arriving in Florida. God is an "ontime" provider. We had 2 lower than average shows so this past weekend was a real blessing.

I am still painting miniatures daily for my eBay site and have scheduled postings over a period of a week or so not wanting to flood the market. I sold half of the aceos I painted and placed on auction the first week in January and tomorrow I will pack and ship about 14 items. It is certainly not a lot of money but it is nice to get some new collectors.

The new landscape I have uploaded today will go up for auction on eBay next week on January 25th. This painting is a wrapped canvas that normally sells for $1050 at my shows. Because I won't have to pay show fees or travel expenses I can offer these items at a lower price. I started the auction at a reasonably low beginning bid.

Tomorrow night, or EARLY Saturday morning we will set up our booths for the Delray Art Festival on Atlantic. This is our last show in the area before returning to Houston after Naples the end of January. We plan to list some of Guiteau's abstract mixed media collages on the eBay site when we return to Houston in February.

For not posting online for awhile I have rambled on for too long. So good nite y'all. Keep watching and I will find it an encouragement. Please keep us in your prayers... pray for our health, traveller's mercies and our finances. Also keep our family, children and grandchildren..in your prayers. We will pray for them and for you also..for our collectors, friends, fellow artists and just interested viewers. God Bless you All.

Today was our day of rest other than photographing and posting some new ACEOs on eBay.
Saw great movie at Muvico theater in Boca Raton ... Dreamgirls. Highly recommended..Wonderful performances especially by Jennifer Hudson. Do you remember her from American Idol? She is fantastic.

Back to the art... I finally bought a loupe to work on the small miniatures I am painting. I wonder why it took me so long to spend the $80 so I can see what I am doing better. We had to drive 40 miles today to return the one I bought yesterday which was defective. Oh well, what else did we have to do today. If any of you who are not artists are wondering what this "loupe" is. It basically is a very large magnifying glass with a fluorescent bulb built in on a swing-arm that can be attached to a table top. I will try it out tomorrow and let you know how it works.

Tomorrow we will rent a car for 2 weeks so we don't have to drive our truck around the city. Driving on I-95 in Florida can be very challenging. We will park the truck once we set up our exhibit Saturday morning and drive the car back and forth.

I don't have much to discuss today. I just wanted to let you preview my new aceos - some of which I have not yet uploaded to eBay. Hope you enjoy them.

Greetings from The Villages

I am posting today since it has been about 5 days since my last journal entry. We left Ft. Lauderdale Friday, set up our booth starting at 2am Saturday and waited for the crowds to come at 10am. This neighborhood produces early risers. Fortunately we set up our tent early as many visitors showed up before 9am. They said it always gets crowded and they wanted to get done before it gets too congested.

We had very enthusiastic visitors and made a quick sale very early. One of Guiteau's mixed media handmade paper collages was sold giving us hopes for the show's success. Overall the visitors expressed praise for the overall quality of the exhibitors and indicated they had not seen this quality of art at a show in The Villages. There was a craft show in the Villages for a couple of years but not a high quality fine art show.

Today is Sunday morning and it will be the last day of the show. Several customers indicated they were going home to measure wall space and would return today. We are hoping for a successful show. Tonight the usual 3 hours to tear down our display and load back into the truck. We will spend the night before returning to Ft. Lauderdale tomorrow morning.

Next weekend we will exhibit at Bocafest in Boca Raton, FL.

I will be posting some new aceo artwork on Monday night or Tuesday. I have been working on these new paintings in my hotel in Ft. Lauderdale and want to get some auction items posted.
Not much happening at the moment but want to keep this blog going. The new picture is my booth displayed last weekend in Naples.

Today was spent mailing out some ebay orders or so I thought. I got everything packed and found out post office was closed due to federal holiday for funeral of President Gerald Ford.
We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale yesterday afternoon and got unpacked and just rested after a very depressing art show and very tiring. New Year's eve was not our best show in Naples this year. The timing of the event doesn't always work out. Many artists did have an excellent show but many also were down in sales from prior years.

My hotel room has now been converted to a studio and this afternoon I have begun painting some new artwork. We met a designer in Naples who requested some color modifications on Guiteau's mixed media artwork and we completed that. She is from the Villages in central Florida where we will be showing next weekend. Hopefully this show will be an improvement. It is all and always will be in God's hands.

The weather in Florida has been exceptionally beautiful...in the 80's and sunny for the most part. Today we had a light shower but compared to the rest of the country it is just wonderful.

I will post a couple of new pieces in the next couple of days to show what we have been doing.

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