ADVERTISING FOR THE PELHAM ART ASSOCIATION

This morning has been spent washing floors,final loads of laundry, gardening and advertising for the Pelham Art Association. I am the vice president of the club and part of my responsibility is to advertise in our local papers up coming workshops,shows and events.I also have personal contact with two reporters that have been wonderful to work with over the years.This weekend we have a 4 day workshop with noted American fine artist Jane E Jones. She is a seven signature American artist, a business woman and fabulous,knowledgeable instructor. Check her out she is online. I have two reporters going to cover the workshop over the next couple of days. YEAH!! Can't wait to see what they write and photograph.

I also advertised for our last workshop of the year which is with John Anderson. He will do two different workshops one in Acrylic the second in Oils. I really wanted to take this workshop but, I will be showing at the Heirloom show that weekend with my fellow "Etsy" shop owners. Really looking forward to this show, we are at  Vermeer's a well known gardening centre, here in the City of Welland.


Allergies are driving me crazy today and have been for the past month.Yuk!!

3,000 READERS - WOW - THANK YOU ALL

Thank you. As, I've said before I am impressed with this medium that allows me to share a little of my life as a Canadian Artist with people from around the world.

I am currently working on a painting of a beautiful beech tree. I will start posting tomorrow images that show the progress of the painting, from underpainting to the finished product.

AMAZON.COM

Prior to the Pelham Art Festival, I decided to purchase a 30" high directors chair. This chair allows you to sit and be at eye level with your customers. I did what most of us do and researched the chairs online. I found many sellers, including one company that I had done business with previously, Amazon. I am sure many of you have bought from Amazon as well. I was so close to the show, I opted to pay extra to have the chair arrive in time for me to use at the festival. It arrived promptly. When I went to unpack it, I noticed that the large box was opened all along one side. I took the chair frame out of the box and after carefully searching the box I realized that the canvas back and seat were missing. Long story slightly shortened, I noticed on a label it had the order ID, how to make a return and an area that said "Have feed back on how we package? Tell us at www.amazon.com/packaging I thought fair enough, I will go to this website and let Amazon know what has happened. I expected a reply within 24 hrs. - no reply - I waited. Finally, today I went on line to Amazon several times and got quick results. They were very apologetic and have credited my account and will be sending me a replacement chair with the proper canvas. It is refreshing and heart warming to know that there are companies out there that truly value their clients.

I am very pleased to say that AMAZON is an honourable company and I will promote them to friends and family and I will continue to be a customer. A valued one!

APRES SHOW

Well I am truly over the excitement of the show. Tired and catching up on household chores today. A lot of hard work lugging and hauling work from point "A" to point "B" and back to point "A" again. I was delighted to see my friends and fellow artists, breathing in all the creative vibes from the new work that I saw. We are so fortunate to have been blessed with this wonderful way to express ourselves.

The live music at the festival was wonderful, especially at the Gala on Friday evening. The students from the culinary school at Confederation are to be commended for the delicious treats they provided and served. Thank you. Thanks to the community volunteers that came out to help. Floaters, you were most appreciated as you looked after our booths so we could take a break, get some lunch and use the washrooms.

The artists are all asked to fill out comment sheets and I did mine. This year I was not impressed that the committee rather than approaching an artist/s to donate a substantial piece of  original work for the raffle, they opted for "prints". This is an original fine art show. The benefit to the artist who donates a substantial piece is that they are included in all the print advertising, plus they are given a double booth and are designated the "Featured Artist". These perks were given out by the committee , who unfortunately lowered the standards. I sincerely hope this does not take place next year as the money generated by the raffle will dwindle substantially. Money generated by the festival mainly supports the local Pelham libraries. Over $350,000.00 has been donated over the past 26years.

See you all at the 28th Annual Pelham art Festival in 2014.

LAST MINUTE RUNNING AROUND

Today, has been busy with last minute running around for the the Pelham Art Festival www.pelhamartfestival.com

Picked up my painting titled" Grandma's Vase"  (24"x36" gallery wrap)from the Vision Centre in Fonthill where it had been on display promoting the festival for the last month. Various businesses in town help us promote the festival by having artist's work displayed in their shops. then I was off to pick up my painting identification cards. I like to get all of this work done prior to set up. It makes life so much less frantic on the first day of the show.

I also went through my wardrobe trying to decide what to wear for the Gala Opening. There is always a party atmosphere with local Niagara wine being featured and appetizers being served with fabulous live music, so much fun and everyone dresses up. Plus,  very excited to see all the new work that my friends and fellow artists have created over the winter months. This will be last posting until after the show.

HI NEIGHBOURS - SHOUT OUT TO MY FRIENDS IN THE USA

Hello neighbours. I hope when you woke up, you woke up to a morning with the sun shining warm ,bright and the birds singing. Fabulous news on the rescue of three very brave, courageous and determined young women. My thoughts and prayers are with them and their families as they reunite and go through the process of recovery.

ARTISTS THERAPY

I have spent the last two days working along side my husband in our gardens. We went to the gardening centre early yesterday morning and picked up a yard of triple mix and 5 bags of sheep manure. We cleaned, trimmed and weeded the front garden and as we were working we heard cheeping coming from one of our low spreading juniper bushes and soon had a frantic male robin fluttering all around and after a few minutes he flew off. We quickly topped that area of the garden with fresh soil and manure and moved to another section. I divided a large hosta placing some of it near a Mountbatten juniper and bridal wreath shrub. Then lifted the stone bird bath so we could level it and clean it out well before adding some fresh water. We were soon out of soil and manure. My husband made a second trip to the gardening centre and while he was gone I decided to lift a clump of white Iris that were too close to the house and split them. I watered in the transplants  and I hope they will like their new placement in the garden. Both of us went in and had long showers. Clothes went directly to the wash.

This morning we were aching and paining, showing our age I guess. When we were twenty gardening seemed so much easier. Today, we planned on working in our upper back yard gardens. Cleaning , trimming and some transplanting. We used the triple mix that was left from the last trip to the garden centre yesterday to fill wholes from were we dug wild roses that had "run a muck" so to speak. Then we fertilized. Lastly, I went into the far back gardens near the creek. Soon, the siberian Iris will bloom along the edge of the creek. I looked for our Mallard Ducks that have been coming to nest and raise their young in the marshes in the creek but they must have taken the young ones to the canal already. The song birds were all around me though as I worked on cleaning out the grass garden true therapy for an artist. After working all day in the garden, I am pleasantly tired and looking forward to a hot shower and a simple dinner of farm fresh eggs, smoked sausage and vegetables and a lovely cup of green tea.