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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