Gallery View

Baby it’s hot outside

Oh, the heat! We set up on the asphalt for the Bellevue show during the biggest heat wave to ever hit Seattle. This show has always been very good to us and I think the highlight is always having people who have previously purchased your work come by just to visit and tell you how much they love your work in their homes. Bellevue always does that for us. The show over all was down from previous years but that can be blamed on the heat more than anything else. People in the Northwest don’t do heat, it is as simple as that. With no air conditioning  in most homes we all flee to the water, the movies or the mall. It really is one place that a sunny day can be more difficult to sell in that a rainy one.

High Hopes

We had such high hopes for the trip to Avon and Jackson Hole. We were heading to some truly beautiful places and the word was that the economy had not taken it’s toll yet on the many vacation home owners and tourists. The drive was wonderful. We stopped in Baker City OR and found an old gold mining town that is being revitalized. We drove through Green River, Utah and stopped along the banks of the river near the entry to Canyonlands. Finally as we entered Avon we found lots of people checking into the hotel for a week’s vacation. Oh this looks promising we thought. Unfortunately people chose not to visit the art show and we spent three days in the sun getting to know our booth mates. Maybe visiting a town with so many things to do was not such a good idea. There were sales going on amongst the few that came to the show but interest centered on very large cowboy paintings and bronze sculptures. It was not the right fit for us and we wrote the show off as one more suited to other types of art.
After a short visit to Utah to see family we headed out to Jackson Hole. Oh, this will be good! It was great for us last year and it is a great city to visits so we were excited. We opted to camp there since costs are high at neighboring hotels so that was nice. Waking up to see the Tetons was definitely a treat. The show is located in the center of town and the town is always hoppingso in theory this should have been an awesome weekend. One thing we have learned this season though is to “expect the unexpected”. We talked to so many who were interested but sales were definitely not what they have been in the past. Selling wall art to tourists is always a challenge so we leave not completely disappointed. It always amazes us how many contact us once we get home.

So we head back home and prepare for the next show In Bellevue. At least we will be close to home….

It’s a Dog’s World

There are two kinds of artshows. There are the ones we covet where serious art buyers come to see the high quality of work displayed. They are educated about the types of art displayed and they came to buy. These shows are harder to get into and anymore, harder to find. When you get into one you know that the weekend will be very successful and that you will be surrounded by other artists with interesting work.

Then there are the other shows where the quality of the art displayed can be very mixed and where the crowd came out because it was simply a beautiful day. These days are harder because people came not expecting to buy and we all become scenery rather than the hard-working artists that we are.

I am always amazed at the number of people who don’t understand that we have to apply to shows, pay for the booth space, travel to the location and then set up our spots. A fellow artist even had a woman in her booth tell her “I could make this stuff too if I didn’t have a job”. Somedays are definitely more work than others.

For me the most trying shows are what I call the “dog” shows. These are the shows where there are more dogs than people sometimes. While it is fun to see all the various kinds of dogs, mostly we sit and pray that there are no “accidents” near the booth. Dog lovers out for the day rarely are serious about the art that we have for sale and we have witnessed one too many dog fights to be fans of these shows. We recently even did a show with clearly marked “no dogs allowed” and watched people walking Fido right past the signs. We did see one really interesting breed however so I took his picture…

This is a what?

We still move one to the next stop and this time it will be a new show we have never been to in Avon, CO. We are very excited!

The Show Begins

There is something so exciting about the first artshow of the summer. It almost feels like the first day of school when you get to see your friends after the summer vacation. We always approach the first show with apprehension about what the season will bring but one thing we always know is that reconnecting with our artshow friends is wonderful.

This year our first show over Father’s Day weekend was fun. We had terrific customers, sold a bunch and remembered why we do this for a living. We always have the first show to figure out what we left out, what we need for the next show and how to make the most of all the shows we have upcoming. Many of the new pieces we have were very well received which is always a good thing.

Thank you Edmonds for starting our summer schedule out so well!!

Father's Day in Edmonds

Art Shows all confirmed

The great motorhome search

We are gearing up to take to the road in just a few weeks as the art show season starts to heat up. We are optimistic that even in difficult times people will still look to art for inspiration and comfort. This year we have a lot of shows and now we are looking to expand beyond the usual summer months and into the fall.

We have so many shows we have even connsidered investing in a motorhome but boy, those things are really expensive It was fun looking at them though and not being tied to cheap motels in expensive cities would be nice! At least we will be in some beautiful places with really great shows.

 

Here is the  summer schedule as of today:

 

June 19 – 21  Edmonds Arts Festival – Edmonds, WA

June 26 – 28  Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts - Lake Oswego, OR

July 10 – 1 2    Avon Fine Art and Wine Affaire – Avon, CO

July 17 – 19  Art Fair Jackson Hole – Jackson Hole, Wyoming

July 24 – 26  Bellevue Festival of the Arts – Bellevue, WA

August 1- 2  Park City Kimball Arts Festival 2009 – Park City, Utah

August 7-9 Sun Valley Art Festival - Sun Valley, ID (waitlisted)

August 28 – 30 Art in the High Desert – Bend , Oregon

Crossing to the Darkside

So everyone has told us forever to start a blog and now we are finally doing it. Steve thinks it is a crazy idea and since I am more willing to write everything down, I guess I will be the scribe for us. We are in a hectic time together. The economy has forced us to look at expanding our range of shows , looking farther in distance and months so we can get as much exposure as possible this year. We have even included a shopping page on ETSY so people can now purchase our things outright and that has been a really interesting experience. Who knew that there was so much handmade stuff out here for sale? Not sure we can compete with all those $20 items but it is another avenue so we will give it a try. harmstonarts.etsy.com

This sort of feels like the calm before the storm as we start to receive all the acceptance (and a few rejection) letters from all the shows we applied to for the summer.  It is always interesting when you explain to people that you have to “jury” into an art show. I think most people don’t realize all the work and expense that goes into setting up your spot every weekend. But I LOVE being at the shows themselves. After all these years it has become the place to see old friends, to stand in the sunshine, and to have a chance to share all the hard work from the rest of the year.

The country is in such disarray right now and I hope that art will continue to be a calming influence for the world. In March we did shows in Arizona and while sales were down it was still reassuring that people still appreciate fine art and are willing to add to their homes because it soothes their souls. Steve won the Best in Printmaking award and we were also thrilled to see that the Best in Show also went to a fellow printmaker!

Steve has been working on several new pieces and his newest one has been chosen as the art for the Posters and shirts for “Art in the High Desert” in Bend,OR. We were very honored to get this distinction and it was definitely one of our favorite shows last year to do.

OK, enough for now….

Bonnie